


Concerto of Integrity in G Sharp

by Blu_Indigo



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bad Puns, Depression, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Frisk (Undertale) Uses Sign Language, I'm Bad At Tagging, Male-Female Friendship, Music, Poor Life Choices, Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader has female parts, Reader-Insert, Sarcasm, Slow Burn, Social Anxiety, Will add more tags as I go along, and when i say slow burn i mean really slow, but there will be kissing, gotta indulge man, news on smut will come later, reader loves music, so is sans and papyrus, the reader is mega broke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-10-16 06:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17544380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blu_Indigo/pseuds/Blu_Indigo
Summary: It's been over half a year since the monsters came to the surface, but that didn't affect your life much. You're fresh out of college, poor and jobless, yet somehow you manage to survive. You press on with your passion for music, your best friend with connections, and your sarcastic wit. You may not have many skeletons in your closet, but two skeletons moved across the hall, so that has to count for something, right? You're suddenly thrown into a whole new world of shenanigans and hijinks as your new friends become more of a support than you anticipated.





	1. Introducing a Bass and a Tenor

“For the love of god, JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY.” You threw some popcorn at your TV  as you yelled at it. Hallmark movies never really struck you as realistic stories, and yet you were addicted to watching them. Fairytale romance in any sense was something to yearn for, even for an anti-social, unromantic imp such as yourself. Who didn’t look at princes and rich guys and secretly wish for a fling like the ones in the movies?

Repetitive and bland romance wasn't cutting it for you anymore, so you clicked through channels, trying to find anything of substance. Then you landed on the local news channel. Pictures of a gruesome scene flashed across the screen. “This morning a monster was rushed to the hospital from another attack. This has been the third act of violence against the monsters this week, and tensions are rising; riots have sprung up across the city, creating more anger between the monsters and humans. In the eight months since the monsters rose from the mountain, the violence is at an all-time high. The Monster King is negotiating with lawmakers to implement more laws to accommodate for the race and is pushing for a crackdown on the perpetrators. ”

You sighed and clicked the TV off. “I think that’s enough TV for tonight.” The floorboards creaked beneath you as you walked to the kitchen and sat your bowl in the sink. You looked around at your dark apartment. You so wished you could afford a better place, but seeing as you were fresh out of college and without a job, that definitely wasn’t happening. You were most literally mooching off your parents to pay for the bills, and you somehow got by with as little food as possible. There was cash flow for doing odd jobs for other tenants in the building, but barely enough. You could only decorate with the bare minimum, such as you only had one recliner chair you’d gotten from a thrift store and one of those old chunky TVs from the ’90s in your living room.

You crept to your room, stripping as you entered your cavern of slumber. An audible sigh of relief left your lips as you unclasped your bra and your chest was finally free of its fabric prison. You slipped on an old t-shirt, not even bothering with pants. The bed almost seemed to whisper your name as you let yourself fall onto it. The one nice thing in this whole apartment was this bed because you made sure to make that investment. You thanked your past self for the stupid economic decision.

Thoughts started to creep into your mind as you tried to sleep. Is this all there is? All there ever will be? Will the disgusting attacks on monsters ever stop? Will you ever be able to find a job with your basically useless degree? Will I ever find any purpose, hell, any love? You were still young, so you had so much future ahead of you, but it was hard not to worry. You live in a hateful and unforgiving world, all you could do was hope and worry.

You started falling asleep with pinpricks of tears in your eyes, but there were loud noises of objects being dropped and moved around from across the hall outside your apartment. Someone must’ve finally rented the apartment next door, but was now really the prime time to move in? It was the middle of the night, and you were actually trying to sleep for once. Either the people had stopped moving or you’d drowned out the sound because you eventually were able to fall asleep.

 

Eventually, you managed to will yourself to get up, but it was 11 by the time you did. Your back and arms cracked as you stretched, a yawn escaping your lips. The sun shined through your window, and so naturally you walked over to your window and pulled the blinds down. The darkness felt good as you made your way to the bathroom. You turned the knobs in the shower, and soon steam was spilling over the curtain. Your shirt and underwear fell to the floor, and soon your skin was singing praises to the hot water.

Soon you were humming, and then you were singing ‘Candles’ by Daughter. It was a solemn song, but you loved it all the same. You envied their talent on the guitar, the best you could do right now was strum chords. But you were learning, you had only picked it up about a year ago. Hopefully, the talent would develop.

The extremely uncomfortable cold quickly enveloped your skin as you turned off the water. You grabbed a towel and quickly rubbed yourself down. A buzz came from your phone on the counter. You picked it up and saw you had a text.

Jaala: Hey dude I’m at McD’s when you gonna get here?

You checked the time in the corner. 12:02. “SHIT,” you practically screamed. You dashed to your room and slipped on a pair of jeans and a baggy sweater, the best kind of sweater. You quickly brushed your teeth and brushed your hair to the best of your ability in ten seconds. You ran to the door like it was the Olympics, grabbing your bag on the way out.

The lock clicked as you turned the key in your door, then you turned on your heel and blindly ran, which was your downfall. Literally. You ran face first into someone and fell on your butt.

“Watch it, bonehead!” You rubbed your rump, then looked up and were dumbfounded. There, also on their butt and covered in laundry, was a skeleton. A legit skeleton. And the skeleton was wearing basketball shorts, slippers, a blue jacket, and a big ass grin on his face. After a second, you immediately regretted your choice of words.

“Aw—oh god, no, I hate myself so much, I can’t believe I just said that, fuck me-” You pinched the bridge of your nose as you sat on the ground for a second. But as you thought you were going to get the biggest tirade about insensitivity, the skeleton looked like they were struggling to hold back laughter.

“geez, lady, this is all going so fast, I don’t think I’m ready for you to jump my bones quite yet,” a deep voice chortled. You groaned and dragged your hands across your face. So this guy was a jokester.

You stood up and offered a hand. “Buddy, it’s not like that. I’m sorry, I’m just in a rush. Did I break anything?”

He clutched at his chest. “maybe my heart. you had me _falling_ for you and everything.” You almost thought a blood vessel was gonna pop, you were so done. But he looked like he was having the time of his life, his grin growing wider. He eventually accepted your hand before you could retract it. When he stood up, you could see he was shorter than you, maybe by a head’s length. You both crouched down and started picking up the laundry.

“why are you in such a rush? you headed to the best first impressions contest?” he asked. At this point, you had exhausted all the frustration out of your body.

“No, I’m supposed to meet a friend at McDonald's.”

“when?”

“About ten minutes ago.” This earned a chuckle from the skeleton.

“well, i might as well introduce myself, seeing as i’m going to be your new neighbor.”

“Wait, seriously? Doug got you an apartment here? I thought it would’ve been close to impossible to get a place around here for monsters.”

“heh. yep, it was a long hunt. we’re right next door.” He stood up with his basket and pointed to the apartment directly across from your own. You hummed, slightly wondering about the “we”. He stuck out his hand to shake. “name’s sans.”

“I’m __________.” You gave a sideways smile as you clasped his hand, and a loud farting noise resounded through the hallway. You gave him a deadpan stare, and he almost started giggling like a child.

He put up his hand to reveal a whoopie cushion. “works every time.”

You rolled your eyes. “I have to get going. I’ll see you later, as I’m quite sure our paths will cross a lot in the future.” You jogged to the elevator, but just as you were about to step inside, Sans stopped you.

“hey!”

You turned your head. “What?”

“you sing well.” You narrowed your eyes at him. He motioned to the laundry room right next to your apartment. “thin walls.”

You blushed profusely as you stomped inside and mashed the lobby button, his chuckles echoing up and down the hall as the door closed. And as soon as the doors closed, you gave two angry birds to the door. If only mom could see you now.

  


“So a pun-making skeleton kept you behind?” Jaala spoke slowly in skepticism, stirring her coffee with a stick. Her dark skin glistened under the fluorescent lights. You were jealous of how she managed to get such good skin.

“Dude, I’m not joking. And he lives next door now.” Jaala quirked a brow at this. You huffed. “My life is sure to get more interesting.”

“Lame excuses aside,—” You looked at her in disbelief of HER disbelief. “—you need a job. We can’t just keep meeting up at McDonald's because they have the cheapest food.”

“Hey, it’s also closer.” She folded her arms, her face very clearly communicating ‘that’s not the point, doofus’. You set your elbows on the table, your chin resting in your palms. “I’m just not having any luck finding anything that makes decent money.”

“As often you come here, you might as well work here, but sadly, even this place has loads of workers already.”

“I’m glad, too, cuz I’m not willing to lose what dignity I have left to work here.”

“Bud, work is work. I have the worst boss you can imagine, but I tolerate it because it pays the bills.”

You shot up. “Oh my god, that’s easy for you to say, miss I-live-in-a-penthouse-with-my-hot-boyfriend.”

Jaala took a long sip of her coffee, then set it down gently. So you weren’t expecting it when she picked up your hand, then crushed it like Hercules on steroids. You yelped in pain, banging your free hand on the table, crying ‘uncle’ the whole while. Some patrons started turning their heads to stare. You had completely forgotten she regularly went to the gym.

“You ready to act like a mature adult now?” Tears ran down your cheeks as you nodded. She finally released her gorilla grip on your hand, and you cradled it in your other hand like a baby. You gave Jaala a death glare, but she only sat back with a smug look on her face. “Look, you’re gonna have to start working eventually. It’s best to just get it over with now so you can get the experience under your belt for an actual CAREER.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’ll grab a newspaper on the way out.” Jaala gave a satisfied nod. She put on her fur coat and grabbed her purse(Michael Kors, of course). This woman may dress like her salary, but damn did she make it work.

“I’ll call you later. Just please PLEASE at least submit your resume somewhere.” You nodded, and the click of her heels followed behind her as she exited the restaurant. You were left sitting there alone with a large Coke.

 

The elevator dinged, and your legs carried you down the hall, now on complete autopilot as you skimmed the classifieds. Chef for hire, veterinarian needed, hiring for a janitor? All of these were NOT what you were looking for. You hummed a random tune as you flipped through the pages, circling the few offers that seemed interesting.

Just as you were reaching your apartment, you heard loud knocking in front of you. You looked up and if you'd told yourself this day couldn't get any weirder, you owed yourself five bucks, because knocking on your door was another skeleton. A really tall skeleton holding a pot. He was almost the complete opposite of the one from earlier, as this one dressed in what seemed like a strange white and red soldier’s uniform with red boots and gloves. He was almost intimidating. You almost considered turning around and camping out in the laundry room, but the skeleton turned to look at you before you could escape.

“OH, HELLO THERE HUMAN! DO YOU LIVE IN THIS APARTMENT?” Holy shit, did this guy not know what an inside voice was? You rubbed your ears and nodded your head. He perked up, his smile growing(??????). “ME AND MY BROTHER HAVE JUST MOVED INTO THE RESIDENCE NEXT TO YOUR OWN, SO I JUST WANTED TO INTRODUCE MYSELF, ESPECIALLY SINCE MY BROTHER TOLD ME HE’D ALREADY MET YOU.”

“Oh, really now?” So he is the other part of the “we” that Sans had said. It almost seemed impossible that they could be related, but if monsters could exist at all, then anything could be possible.

“YES, HE COULDN'T STOP LAUGHING ABOUT IT, THOUGH I’M NOT SURE WHY. I TRIED TO ASK, BUT ALL HE WOULD SAY IS THAT ‘YOU MADE A REALLY GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION’.” You thinned your lips. Of course he was laughing at you now.

“ANYWAYS, I HAVE PREPARED MY FAMOUS SPAGHETTI AS A GIFT TO YOU.” He shoved the pot towards you, and you cautiously took it. You almost dropped it, it was so surprisingly heavy.

You smile nervously, but politely. “Oh, wow, thanks! You didn't have to do this for me.”

“NONSENSE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, STRIVE TO MAKE ALL OF MY FRIENDS FEEL UTTERLY APPRECIATED! AND SEEING AS YOU ARE OUR NEW FRIEND, I MUST MAKE JUST AS GOOD A FIRST IMPRESSION AS YOU DID WITH MY BROTHER!”

Great, you would never live that down, would you? You set the pot on the ground and stuck out your hand, giving your best smile. “Well, my name is ________. It’s nice to meet you, Papyrus.”

Papyrus let out a delighted ‘squee’ and shook your hand with great veracity. You started to lose your balance, he was shaking you around so much. “I AM SO GLAD WE HAVE SUCH A NICE FRIEND LIVING NEXT TO US IN OUR FIRST HOME ON THE SURFACE!”

“Wait, your first-?” Just then, there was beeping coming from inside his apartment, and the door opened to reveal Sans.

“hey, pap, you left your spaghetti on the stove.”

Papyrus jumped and dashed into the apartment. “SANS, YOU SHOULD’VE TOLD ME EARLIER!”

You crouched down and picked up the pot of spaghetti. When you stood back up, Sans was standing in front of you, making you jump back.

“thanks for being nice to my bro back there. he really needs some positive human interaction, ‘specially with all these attacks happening. he made the spaghetti extra special just for you.” He gave you a mischievous look, but you couldn’t understand what he was getting at.

“Well, he did prepare me spaghetti, so it’s the least I can do, even though his brother has been so saucy-” You choke on your words. You groan and Sans can only howl in laughter at your unintended wordplay.

“you have got to be the funniest human i’ve ever met,” he says between laughs. You turn to the wall and lightly smack your forehead against it repeatedly.

“I hate myself I hate myself I hate myself-”

“aw, come on, you’re so good at puns, though. you could even be a comedian, if only you could see all—” You turn to glare at him.

“—the—” You shake your head and make threatening gestures at him in anger. He only grins wider.

“— _pasta_ -bilities.” You want to cry. You actually want to curl into a ball and cry. And it seems someone else does, too, judging by the shriek coming from inside his and Papyrus’ apartment. Sans just snickered at this.

“anyways, i do hope we can be friends. If we can, i’m sure i’ll enjoy living in the _ziti.”_

“Nope. Stop. You stop that right now.”

“do you want me to get out of your _angel hair_?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“alright, i’ll go before i invoke your _fiori_.”

“Just go, ya noodlehead.” You had actually wanted to say that one, so of course it didn't make him laugh as much. But he still laughed. He stepped into his doorway, gave you one last glance, and with a wink he closed the door.

And with that, you finally had peace. You unlocked your door and hauled the humongous serving of spaghetti into the kitchen. You certainly weren’t going to have to worry about food for a while, and you were excited about it.

Saliva almost dripped from your lips as you lifted the top off the pot, only to reveal a mess. It looked like spaghetti, but the longer you looked, the more it looked like someone who had never had contact with an oven before had been told to make a pasta medley. The noodles were burnt, the sauce had extremely large chunks of tomato in it, and there were pine needles and glitter thrown on top. You placed the top of the pot back on and stood in silence for a short while. You needed to contemplate for a moment.

A grumble came from your stomach. You cringed at yourself as you resentfully grabbed a plate and a fork, and plated some spaghetti. The spaghetti moved in such an unsettling way as you twirled your fork around it. You very slowly put it in your mouth, and immediately cursed your desperateness. You dashed to the sink and hacked up the chewed slop, then started scrubbing at your mouth with your fingers. You could’ve sworn you heard distant laughing, but it stopped just as you started to listen for it.

You dreamt of bad jokes and bad pasta that night.


	2. Strumming Up Some Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot happens in one day, but it's not even half of it

A few days passed, same usual shtick, but with new neighbors thrown in. And one of those neighbors in particular just wants to see you in misery every time you cross paths. Papyrus was nice enough, but it was almost like Sans’ life goal was to make as many puns as humanly possible and get your mood at such a low level that not even John Mulaney could cure your blues.

But that morning was going so wonderfully. It wasn’t too sunny out so it wasn’t super bright, you had found the perfect sleeping position, and it was peacefully quiet. But it was short lived.

Loud music was blasting through the air, and it scared you so bad you fell out of bed. You couldn’t even discern what kind of music it was so loud. You shot up and walked to the living room. It took a second, but you located where the music was coming from: across the hall.

“No one disturbs my sleep but myself and the landlord.” You stomped over to the closet and pulled out your dad’s old guitar and equipment. He had given it to you as a secret graduation gift, to pass the torch of his old passion to you. Your mom would’ve freaked if she knew you had them. It came in handy for situations like this.

You plugged in the amp and microphone in the middle of the living room. The dust from the guitar flew in the air when you picked it up. Memories of seeing videos of your dad play this thing flew through your mind. You plugged in the electric and switched on the amp to full blast, then turned on the percussion for “American Idiot” by Green Day on the Bluetooth speaker. Good thing that was the song you had just learned.

Sweet punk notes filled your ears as you played along to the song, and the lyrics that left your mouth were sung with genuineness. You felt the passion for music coursing through your muscles as they flexed to play the chords. D, A, E, A, D, A, E. You knew full well what you were doing was the ultimate form of petty, but you didn’t care. Nothing felt better than giving someone a taste of their own medicine, and you were certainly gonna blow out their ears in doing so.

The music stopped, then an extra loud knock—a slam, really—came at the door. You grinned in satisfaction. ‘Mission accomplished,’ you thought to yourself. You set down the guitar and walked with a spring in your step to answer the door. You swung it open, and there was Sans, Papyrus, and someone new in the lead. This person looked like the girl version of the monster from the black lagoon. She had blood red hair in a ponytail and an eyepatch over her right eye. You certainly didn’t wanna mess with her, but you really might’ve done just that.

“Were you the one blasting the music just now?” the fish lady asked, a menacing gleam in her eye. You had been prepared for a somewhat smug interaction, but now you were a nervous, sweaty mess. You could only nod at the scary woman. You glanced down at Sans, who had a cocky smirk on his face, and you really just wanted to strangle him. SO badly. But was that even possible? But you looked back up and the fish lady was now smiling wildly. “Are you kidding me? That was so good, what song was that?!”

Before you could even answer, she was pushing past you into your apartment. Papyrus walked past as well, asking if he could come in beforehand, and Sans just walked in like he owned the place. You stared off into space in confusion as you closed the door behind you.

The fish lady looked around the apartment as she talked. “Papyrus had just been telling me how much he likes his new neighbor, and since they managed to even impress Sans, a HUMAN, no less, I just had to see who this person was.” She looked back at you with a sharp-toothed grin. “And so far, I approve.”

Papyrus was gawking at your guitar and set-up as Sans lounged on your recliner. Papyrus looked up at you. “HUMAN! WHAT IS ALL THIS STRANGE EQUIPMENT FOR?”

You scratched the back of your head. “It’s the stuff that makes the guitar and my voice so loud.”

The lady looked at you in amazement. “Wait, YOU were the one playing?!” You nodded, and both she and Papyrus gasped. “I thought you were just blasting some good tunes!”

“HUMAN, WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL THE GREAT PAPYRUS YOU ARE SO TALENTED? BEING A SKELETON OF MANY TALENTS MYSELF, WE COULD’VE HAD A LOVELY CONVERSATION OVER SOME SPAGHETTI!” You felt the heat crawl into your cheeks as you shrugged. He picked up the guitar and plucked a string, and it came out of the amp extremely loud, startling him.

The fish lady quickly found the button on your amp to switch it off. “Dude, why do you have it turned up so loud, anyway? You’re gonna make the entire block deaf!”

And now was when you started to put on your petty act. “Sorry, I was trying to practice and I like it loud. But you guys weren’t any quieter…”

The fish lady laughed, almost like a grizzled warrior’s hearty rumble. “Oh, yeah, that. I was helping these bozos set up their brand new stereo system that my super-smart girlfriend, Alphys, made for them, and we were trying to figure out how to turn down the volume. Would’ve had her help us out, cuz she’s a scientist, but she has work until late tonight, so I guess I was the next best thing!”

Now you really felt bad. You managed to put on a polite smile over your tomato red face. You snuck a look at Sans, and he was grinning at you like he knew your plan and that it had backfired. Why did he have to be so arrogant?

“Anyways, we should probably get back to it!” The fish lady stepped towards the door, then tapped her forehead with her palm. “Oh, right I almost forgot!” She stuck out her hand to you. “The name’s Undyne.”

You hesitantly took her hand, and your hesitance was warranted, as her grip was even harder than Jaala’s. You whimpered as she firmly shook it. When she finally let go, you checked to make sure she hadn’t fractured anything.

“It was nice to meet you!” she called back as she ran back to the skeleton brothers’ apartment. Papyrus stopped to say his goodbyes, then Sans eventually followed. As he passed you, he snickered.

“What are you all smiley about?” He stopped and looked back up at you.

“nothing. i just really like your pajamas.”

Papyrus popped back in. “I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO COMPLIMENT ON YOUR PAJAMAS! THEY ARE QUITE COOL, THOUGH NOT AS COOL MY OWN!”

You looked down, and to your horror, you had worn your short sleeve button up shirt and pants with a skull and crossbones pattern on them. You gritted your teeth and growled as Sans clearly had won this battle. 3-0, and you were only trying the third time.

When everyone had finally left, you sat on the recliner and curled into a ball, brewing in your frustration. You took a long intake of breath. Sans’ scent must’ve rubbed off because the recliner now smelled of hot dogs and socks. Not particularly stinky socks, just that smell of socks that’s just a little different than a little laundry aroma. Wait, why were you dissecting this?

A knock came at your door. You stood up and answered it, and there was Doug, the landlord. “I have had several noise complaints about loud music coming from this floor.”

You smiled and nodded as Doug lectured you on respect and etiquette. Yep. Your plan had backfired. Majorly.

 

Once your embarrassment had finally worn off enough so you could step out of your apartment, you got dressed and set out to submit resumes. The best thing you could find in your closet that looked at least a little professional was a black button up shirt and green midi skirt your grandma had given you for Christmas last year. You paired it with a cute pair of black ballet flats you’d been meaning to wear. Then all you had to do was style your hair decently and shave your horrendously hairy legs and you were good to go.

You printed out several resumes and applications in Doug’s office (he almost denied you because of that morning), filled them out, and you were on your way. The first item on your list was a local bakery just a few blocks down that needed a cashier. It looked like it was a fairly new establishment, so it was worth checking out anyways. The outside of the building was cute and welcoming, decorated with embellishments on the window of…..spiders? It looked like the theme of the place was more creepy than you thought. The gentle ‘ting’ of the bell on the door alerted everyone that you had just entered. You walked up to the counter, digging through your barely-used purse for your resume.

“Hello, I saw your ad in the paper for a cashier, and I thought I’d stop by to apply…” You trailed off once you looked up at the girl behind the counter. She was very pretty, even with her five eyes and six arms, but the thing surprised you was that she was surrounded by spiders. In fact, it seemed as though they were the ones helping out in the kitchen.

The girl perked up. “Oh, wonderful! We haven’t had any applications come in yet, so this is quite exciting~!” The spiders jumped around like they were cheering. One of them dropped a donut in your hand. “I’m Muffet, the owner of the bakery. Please accept this donut, on the house!”

You bit into the donut, and you almost moaned. It was incredibly delicious. “My name is ________, but am I really the first person to submit an application?”

Miss Muffet crossed her top set of arms while the rest of them lay still at her sides. “Yes, I’m afraid so. My thought is that humans are...distraught by my spiders. I have clarified that they are very different from the surface spiders, which I think are likely a feral vein of monster spiders, but they still don’t come around. Monsters still come in to buy my goods, but I was hoping the humans would enjoy my confections as well.” She looked frustrated, staring at the people passing by outside. “Not to even mention how difficult it is to run my business under human health regulations! Did you know that spiders in the kitchen are considered unsafe and unsanitary? Quite strange indeed! And apparently 9999 units of human currency is too high of a price for my pastries, so I was forced to lower it.”

You licked the icing from your fingers. “That’s really sad to hear. I do hope your business will profit more in the future, Miss Muffet. I know for sure that I’ll be visiting here, even if I don’t get hired. The donut was amazing!”

She smiled, and you could see cute fangs poking out. “Thank you so much~! You know, it’s rare that we ever meet a human like you.”

“You and your spiders?”

“No, all of us monsters. Kind humans are such a rarity these days. They’re either frightened of us, or hateful towards us. You have no idea how frustrating it can get when you can’t even buy a bag of flour from the store without being gawked at.”

You looked into Muffet’s eyes and felt remorse. Why did humans have to make a big deal about everything? You were talking to a literal anthropomorphic spider and it was fine! But you were a little more laid back than most other people. You once saw someone streaking on college campus and just shrugged and kept walking. Others were a little bit more finicky with subjects that weren’t considered “normal” to them. But that didn’t excuse the fact that people were literally shitting all over the monsters.

“I’m glad to make a difference. I just want to see all of this fighting stop, all the violence. I’d much rather see my news feed be something more productive, like ‘First Monster Gold Medalist’ or ‘Monster-Human Treaty Drafted’.” Miss Muffet smiles at this and you smile in return.

You say you have to be on your way, and she sends you with a pastry basket for your kindness. That bakery was certainly worth considering for work.

By the time you’d finished submitting applications, your feet ached and you were exhausted like you’d just ran a marathon. You’d visited only a few places, but they were spread across the city. When you returned to your apartment, you happily kicked off your shoes and sank into the recliner. To your dismay, it smelled like Sans. You had sprayed this thing with disinfectant AND Febreeze. You thought it would’ve been gone by now. But you were too lazy to be bothered to sit somewhere else. You just needed to lay there and be alone after interacting with so many people for one day.

It hadn’t even been ten minutes when a very loud and startling knock came at the door. You grimaced at the pain in your feet when you stood up to answer it. Papyrus stood there with a happy expression.

“HELLO, HUMAN! I HAVE COME TO ASK IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US FOR DINNER!”

You raised an eyebrow. “What’s the occasion?”

“THERE IS NO SPECIAL REASON OTHER THAN BEING A GOOD FRIEND! AND IT WAS SANS’ IDEA.”

Was this Sans’ idea of rubbing it in? Inviting you over for a dinner where he could humiliate you more? Plus you were WAY tired from walking for so long. You were about to say no, but then one look at Papyrus’ innocent and hopeful face and you couldn’t. He was like an innocent puppy, and this world would eat him alive if he wasn’t careful.

“...Sure, I guess that sounds alri-” You were being lifted in a bear hug before you would even finish your sentence. All the wind had been knocked out of your lungs and he was somehow still crushing it out of you. Just as you thought you might pass out, he set you back down.

“I WILL GO TELL SANS! WE WILL PREPARE A FEAST! OH, I CAN’T WAIT TO TELL UNDYNE AND THE SMALLER HUMAN!” He walked back to his apartment, still listing things off until you couldn’t hear him anymore. You slowly closed the door, the small ‘click’ of the door being the only sound in the whole apartment. A sigh left your lips as you trudged to your room.

Seeing people be so kind to you, be so careless with their goodness, it made you so confused. A mellow and somber tone met your heart. Your voice bounced off the walls as you started to sing “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by Fleet Foxes. It was a pretty song, but it still echoed with sadness. It reminded you of a life that you want to have, but can’t maintain. It told a beautiful story, and you were sad to say that you could relate to the lyrics and the lonely feeling the music gave you.

You weren’t sure why you were singing. You just...were. Singing came like a comfort to you, like a mother’s hug without the uncomfortable touching and hidden judgment. You’d always enjoyed music, and maybe it was because your dad had been in a band when he was in college, but you felt like it was more than that. If it weren’t for this capitalist society’s unforgivingness towards the entertainment industry, then you would have pursued your dream to sing, but you had to be the best or you wouldn’t make it all. So you were stuck with a liberal arts degree, broke and close to being homeless. Was this life really any better?

You laid on your bed and stared up at the ceiling. This was the usual cycle: wake up, try, feel like trying is useless, depressing thoughts, sleep for the last half of the day. You could listen to all the encouraging music you wanted, but your life wasn’t gonna get any better if you weren’t willing to put in the effort, and here you were, too depressed about not putting in the effort to put actually in any effort. Why do people do this to themselves?

This continued for what seemed like eons, feeling like you were slowly sinking into the bed until you sat up. This isn’t what you wanted, but maybe you could try and be happy with it. The first step to anything was to fake it until you make it, so maybe this dinner would be a good stepping stone to that. You could show up and show that you don’t care how much Sans teases you, then maybe you’d feel a little less like shit. But you first had to stop being tired. A cold shower was sure to do the trick.

And it did do the trick. You stepped out of that shower with wide eyes and almost blue skin. You had scrubbed yourself with a strawberry seed body scrub and shaved your legs again, just to smooth them out. All of a sudden, you were on a roll. You were washing your sweaty clothes in the sink and drying them with your blow dryer. You ironed out the wrinkles and hung them out to cool. You rubbed on some strawberry lotion, to keep the fruity pattern going. Then you slipped on your fresh clothes and drew yourself the best damn winged eyeliner you’d done in years. Mascara, hairspray, your flats, and you were done. You looked at yourself in the mirror, and you were stunned. You weren’t a narcissist, but shit did you look good.

You were ready to make an absolute ass of yourself.


	3. The Exact Opposite of Allegro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Act 2 of a strange day, and dinner at the neighbors' goes awry

You stepped across the hallway and gave a soft knock on the neighboring door. The door swung open, and you looked up only to find that there wasn’t a mega tall skeleton standing there. You looked down and there was a kid. It was a human kid, about seven or eight, and they had their hair cut into a bob that made them look like a more gender ambiguous Dora the Explorer. They smiled up at you, and you could only assume this was the “smaller human” that Papyrus had mentioned.

“TINY HUMAN, WHO IS AT THE DOOR?” You heard clunking coming from the apartment, and then you saw the skele-dude himself bounding towards the door in an apron that was obviously way too small for him. It read "kiss the cook", but the "kiss" was drawn over with marker and replaced with "hug". “OH, IT IS THE OTHER HUMAN! HELLO THERE! YOU ARE JUST IN TIME FOR DINNER! NYEHEHE!”

Papyrus basically forced you inside, and you could see they did not hesitate in making their apartment more personalized. They had an old looking couch in front of a TV (smaller than your own) and the stereo system you’d heard about sitting next to it, and a rickety dining table that had a platter of food already on it. There were random decorations everywhere, and there was a small table next to the door with a rock on it covered in sprinkles. You weren’t surprised.

Undyne was sitting on the couch, talking with a dinosaur-esque monster. Undyne turned to you with a friendly smile and pointed, and BJ from Barney shyly waved. You looked, and Sans was nowhere to be seen, thankfully. They were both wearing casual clothing, Undyne donning a leather jacket and the other monster wearing a T-shirt for some anime called “Mew Mew Kissy Cutie”. You had obviously overdressed for the event, and your anxiety was starting to kick in. But you pushed it down, refusing to let it take over. You told yourself that at least among everyone else, you looked amazing.

“SADLY, LADY TORIEL COULDN’T MAKE IT TONIGHT. SHE HAD TO GO TO A MEETING WITH KING ASGORE. BUT THE TINY HUMAN WAS ABLE TO COME!” Papyrus gestured towards the kid, and they did...jazz hands? You decided to reciprocate with confused jazz hands, and they put their hand over the mouth like they were holding back laughter.

“So who is this kid, Papyrus?” You almost regretted asking, because everyone in the room gasped and stared at you in shock.

“THEY ARE NOT JUST SOME KID, SILLY FRIEND! THEY SINGLE HANDEDLY SAVED ALL OF MONSTER KIND!,” Papyrus passionately clarified.

“And they are the king and queen’s child,” the dinosaur chimed in.

“They were all over the news for, like, a straight two weeks after we got out of Mt. Ebott,” Undyne added. You looked down at the kid. This was the person who had freed all the monsters? You’d not seen those newscasts, but you’d heard about them. You’d imagined them a bit...older. You knelt down to their level.

“So then that’d make you Frisk, huh?” You put your hand out for them. “It’s nice to meet the savior of monsters. I’m ________.”

They giggled and took your hand. Papyrus looked so happy, you almost thought he was gonna have a stroke. Wait, could he have a stroke? Do skeletons have brains? By logic, he shouldn’t, since he doesn’t have nerves running through his arms and legs, but then how is he moving around? You put it out of your mind before you got a headache from thinking too hard. You just settled with magic. It’s the go-to explanation for anything, and now it’s a legitimate thing that exists.

Then you were let loose to mingle. Undyne introduced you to the Alphys she had been talking about. Apparently, not even a day after she’d gotten to the surface, both a big corporation and a big university in the city had basically begged Alphys to work for them because she was craaaazy smart or something. So she worked at the corporation and in two departments of the uni—the Physics and Chemistry department and the Engineering department. Alphys had gotten Undyne a job working as a security guard for the same university. You were highly impressed that they both had managed to score such good jobs in the city, though you wondered how Alphys juggled having three jobs. A lot of monsters were trying to move out of the city, in hopes of more job opportunities and just to get away from all the hatred. The Monster King and city officials advised (in other words, forced) that they stay in the city until agreements can be made upon regarding a treaty so that they don’t get hurt or in legal trouble. Although you knew they were right in that regard, you really couldn’t blame those monsters for wanting to get away.

The front door swung open and Sans rushed in. “sorry i’m late, bro, i had to pick up a few thi-” Sans stopped dead when he looked at you. You stood awkwardly as the skeleton just stared at you. Then his straight line of teeth moved into his usual smile. “you clean up nice. didn’t have to dress up just for me, though.”

Your eyebrows flattened in disappointment. And here you thought he was actually gonna say something nice for once. “I can dress nicely just because I want to, buddy.”

“i have a name, and you should a- _dress_ me with it.” You knew it was coming. You had known he would make at least one pun tonight, but you still groaned in irritation. He reveled in your misery, his cheesy grin growing wider.

You heard a familiar shriek of despair, and the source was Papyrus. “SANS, PLEASE DON’T RUIN THIS FRIENDSHIP DINNER WITH YOUR INCESSANT PUNS!”

Sans shrugged. “sorry, bro. i was only trying to lighten the mood with some _punny_ jokes.” Papyrus looked even more irritated than you had been. So Sans’ joking nature wasn’t aimed only at you. That comforted you slightly. The only one really enjoying Sans’ puns seemed to be Frisk.

Undyne cut in before Papyrus could get a rebuttal in. “Enough of the puns, I’m starving! Let’s dig in!” All of you nodded in agreement and sat at the dining table. You chose to sit next to Undyne at the end of the table. Your chair croaked as you sat on it, and not just because it was a chair of questionable build. You didn’t even have to look underneath you to know what you’d sat on. You pulled the rubber chicken from beneath you, staring daggers at Sans from across the table the whole time. He grinned back, and Papyrus glared at him as well.

“SANS, I AM NOT SURE WHY YOU ARE JOKING SO MUCH ALL OF A SUDDEN, BUT I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU WOULDN’T SCARE OFF OUR NEW FRIEND.”

“relax, pap, i’m pretty sure she’s not going anywhere.” He seemed very confident as he said this, and though you wanted to argue, you couldn’t. These people were strange, but you actually were starting to think of them as friends. Besides Jaala, they were the people you’d talked the most to in months. You could tell that Sans knew you were thinking this by the cocky look in his eyes. Which were just white dots floating in his eye holes.

Frisk made some strange gestures with his hands towards you and it took you a minute to register he had said something in sign language. You knew a few words, but you couldn't understand what he was saying from how fast he had signed. You shrugged, trying to tell him you couldn’t understand, but he kept signing at the speed of light. You put your hands up to tell him to slow down, but nothing was getting through.

“he’s trying to tell you that he’s glad you could make it to dinner and thankful that you were so kind to us.” You looked over at Sans, and he actually had a genuine look on his face. You turned your head back to Frisk, and he was holding up a crayon picture of everyone plus more people you’d not met, with you and Frisk in the middle. It read “Thank You!” on the top in crappy cursive. Your fingers brushed over it, and you gingerly took it. This was the nicest thing anyone, let alone a kid, had done for you in a long time. You almost thought you were gonna cry tears of happiness.

“Thank you so much, kid. This means a lot to me.” Frisk nodded his head and gave a toothy smile. This kid seemed too pure to go through hell and back to save an entire race.

You hadn’t even thought about eating until your stomach grumbled painfully. God, you hoped there was good food, not burnt or topped with arts and crafts supplies….

Thankfully, none of it had glitter on it, but there indeed was plenty of types of pasta to choose from. You picked up one pot that looked like it was just macaroni and cheese and scooped it onto your plate. It shlopped onto your plate like the play slime you bought at gift shops, or worse, made yourself. The macaroni did look strange, but you were too hungry to not eat anything, and everything else looked even more questionable than this, so you chanced a bite. You were surprised to find it actually wasn’t that bad. But you knew what would make it better.

“Hey, Papyrus, could I check your fridge real quick?”

“I GUESS THAT’S ALRIGHT…” Everyone gave you curious looks as you hopped over to the kitchen and threw open the fridge. The door of the fridge was completely stocked with just ketchup bottles labeled “Grillby’s”. You sifted through plastic containers of what looked like spaghetti and other strange foods until you got to the back of the fridge. Your hand grazed over a bottle and you pulled it out. To your pleasure, it was exactly what you wanted.

You sat back down and set the bottle on the table. “Do you mind if I used it, Papyrus?” He shook his head no, but he looked baffled. The bottle sputtered as you squeezed the brown substance onto the macaroni. Papyrus’ eyes widened like he hadn’t expected you to do that. He looked horrified.

“Barbeque sauce?,” Undyne puzzled.

“Sorry, I’ve been putting it on my mac since I was little,” you explained. “I don’t mean to imply that your dish isn’t good enough on it’s own, Papyrus, it’s just a personal preference.”

“IT’S NOT THAT THAT I’M WORRIED ABOUT.” Papyrus turned to his relaxed brother. “WHAT DID YOU DO? DID YOU RUIN OUR FRIENDS TASTE?”

The skeleton in question shrugged lazily. “i don’t know what you’re talkin’ ‘bout, bro.”

“YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHAT I SPEAK OF! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS COOKED A LOVELY DISH, AND THOUGH I DO NOT JUDGE FOR TRYING TO IMPROVE UPON MASTERY, I ONLY KNOW ONE PERSON WHO USES CONDIMENTS IN SUCH A WAY!”

At first, you were confused, then you noticed Sans’ didn’t have any food on his plate. He simply held a red ketchup bottle, like the ones in the fridge. He waved it in the air as he spoke, staring at you the while. “nah. think she has bad taste all on her own.”

Everyone almost seemed to gasp all at once. It wasn’t even a nasty comment, but you were offended all the same. You hadn’t expected something like this from Sans. It wasn’t like his usual teasing, it was almost like he was testing you.

Papyrus looked livid. “SANS YOU DON’T JUST INSULT OUR GUEST!! IT’S INCREDIBLY IMPOLITE!!”

Alphys waved her hands anxiously, trying to ease the tension. “G-guys, please, let’s not fight.”

Undyne stood up and faced Sans, ignoring her partner’s pleas. “Dude, she might be weird, but be nice at least! She’s one of the only humans up here who’s been decent!”

The atmosphere was so tense, you couldn’t even massage it out of the air. Despite the fact that Sans was being yelled at, he looked perfectly calm, like this was completely normal. Everyone else seemed at least a little disconcerted, but he was fine. You, on the other hand, were growing guilty. You didn’t mean to spark a fight. You regretted overstepping your bounds. This always happened, you caused people trouble and made people miserable. You leeched off of them until they couldn’t stand you anymore.

You felt a hand on your arm, shocking you from your thoughts. You hadn’t even noticed that your face had screwed itself into an ugly grimace, and your hands had a vice grip on the edge of the table. Frisk continued to stroke your arm, comforting you. Your lungs expanded and shrank as you took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Your grip on the table loosened and you calmed down. You couldn’t let yourself ruin this lovely dinner.

“Everyone, please don’t fight because of me. I didn’t mean to mess things up.” The table turned to look at you, then their faces shifted from discomfort to horror.

“OH MY GOSH, I AM SO SORRY, HUMAN! I DIDN’T MEAN TO UPSET YOU!”

“Just trying to—”

“I didn’t think—”

You waved them all off. “It’s fine. Please don’t apologize, I just want to enjoy this wonderful dinner.” Frisk smiled at you like they were proud. At least you did one thing right.

The feeling of another presence next to you made your hair stand on end. You looked to your other side and there was Sans. You would’ve been surprised by his sudden appearance, but you were too irritated at him for being so blatantly rude.

“could i speak to you in the hall for a sec?” You cocked your head to the side, curious about what he would possibly want to say. You looked closer, and his expression was normal enough on the surface, but his eyes were deeper. It was difficult to read what he was feeling, he covered it up so well.

“Sure, I guess.” Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, and Frisk all looked at you both with extreme concern as you both stepped out of the apartment and closed the door. You weren’t sure what you were supposed to expect either. You only had known Sans for a few days, you only knew what you saw.

It was silent between both of you for a few moments, then Sans spoke up. “look, i’m sorry. i don’t usually do apologies, but this is an exception. i was acting like an ass in there, and everyone started fighting, it was a mess. none of it was your fault.”

All of this sounded way to genuine to be him. This is the same guy who’d been teasing you since the moment you’d met? You crossed your arms over your chest. “Yeah, what was up with you straight up insulting me? That was a little uncalled for.”

His brow bones furrowed, a strange look in his eyes now. You couldn’t identify it. “i don’t know what i was trying to accomplish, either. i had something in mind, but some dumb part of me thought it would actually work the way i wanted it to. i’m sorry about that. you don’t deserve to be treated like that, especially since you’ve actually been decent to all of us.”

“What were you hoping to achieve?”

Something weird happened to his face at this. It started to turn blue, but only on his cheekbones. Wait, was that him blushing? There’s magic, back at it again. “i guess something about you sparked my interest. you are so much...different from other humans. you were okay with me and my bro, you keep accidentally making puns.” You snort at this. Of course that’s what it’s about. Sans motions with his hand that he’s not done.

“but it’s also a little more than that. it’s really hard to explain. but explanations aside, truce? i’ll stop teasing you so much, but i can’t promise anything. it’s too fun seeing your reaction”

Looking past the last bit, you weren’t entirely sure what he was trying to say. Was this him saying he wanted to be friends? You had no idea of what to think of this. You thought you had him pegged, but then he had grabbed the entire board and turn it on its head.

He scratched the back of his skull. “if you aren’t interested, that’s fine, i just kinda would like to hear you actually say it.”

You snapped out of your skeptical thoughts. “No, no, that’s not what I was thinking at all! I do want to try being friends if you’re willing to try. But I need one thing from you.”

Sans arched a brow bone. “and that would be…?”

“Your number.” You guessed he wasn’t expecting that answer, because one second he was fine, the next he was leaning against the door, wheezing for air.

“geez, _________, you really decided to go for it, didn’t ya?”

You rolled your eyes, but this time with a smile. “Friends have each other friends’ numbers to text. And I want to have yours so we can talk.”

He looked deeply into your eyes for a few seconds, almost searching for something, then he pulled his phone from his hoodie. “sure, gimme yours too, then.”

His bony fingers sounded weird tapping on a phone screen, but somehow they worked on it. One of these days you were gonna have to ask about how that worked. Finally, he handed your phone back to you, and you handed his back. But once he took his phone, you kept your hand stuck out. He looked down at it in question, then hesitantly grasped it.

“If you ever need to talk, just text or call, or even just walk across the hall. That rhymed, I did not mean for that to rhyme.” Sans chuckled a bit, and you could feel your face flush.

“likewise.”

“Y’know, I’m surprised you haven’t made a pun this entire time.”

Sans’ smile quirked in one corner. “yeah. me too.”


	4. Bass' Aria

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The solo of the bass in the concert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one, sorry! but it's the thing that i've gotten the most requests for! (I mean I'd already had this written before I even published this, so ya'll were gonna get it anyways)

Sans had learned early on to expect hatred and bigotry from all humans and be pleasantly surprised if they were nice. But you were a complete wild card.

He had enjoyed listening to your singing as he waited for his laundry to dry. Your voice was like a good bottle of sweet ketchup, but like someone had added salt to it with their tears. He could feel the connection to the lonely feeling you sang forming in his soul, but then it stopped. His soul cried out to hear more, and he wanted it, too. But then the loud “SHIT!” from the other side of the wall made up for it, as he held in laughter that threatened to break his cover.

The moment you had bumped into each other, he could sense something. He wasn’t sure what, but it was something. Then you said what you said, and he knew that he would like you. And he did. A lot.

He continued to tease you, making jokes like he usually would, but a few more thrown in just for you. And you annoyed yourself, too. When you would say something that hit the funny bone, you would just groan and moan and whine and he loved it. He wanted to see more of it.

That morning, it was just amusement, the wonderful moment of when you make a bad pun and it just ruins someone’s mood. But then it grew into intrigue. He wanted to see how far he could go with his jokes, with his antics before you finally said “no more”.

It wasn’t to be mean or sadistic. He just wanted to know what made you tick. You were a young woman in the city all on her own, and by the looks of it, without a job. He couldn’t help but wonder, what made you so much different from those asshats that gave him sideways glances and sneers behind his back?

So he decided to try playing a little game. He was going to see where the line was, and he was going to do that by poking every button he could and see your reaction. It was almost like a little war, you trying to beat him, but him ultimately winning almost every time. You even tried to counter his (accidentally) loud music with your own wonderful music, and your bitter-sweet voice, but then you just ended up looking a jerk to everyone.

Papyrus was browsing through pasta recipes for dinner and Sans was laying on the couch, watching whatever human show was on the TV, when Papyrus suddenly jumps up, clutching his cell phone.

“yo, what’s wrong, pap?”

“LADY TORIEL CAN’T MAKE IT TO THE DINNER! SHE’S BUSY TONIGHT!” Papyrus looked genuinely distraught.

“can the kid still make it?”

“HOLD ON, I SHALL ASK.” Papyrus typed furiously on his phone.

Only a few seconds later, his phone dinged. Papyrus’ smile brightened back up. “YES, THEY CAN! LADY TORIEL CAN DROP THEM OFF BEFORE SHE HAS TO BE AT CITY HALL!”

“that’s good.” Sans went back to his TV show, but Papyrus walked over and stood in front of the TV, blocking his view.

“SANS, YOU LAZYBONES, WE NEED TO INVITE SOMEONE ELSE! IT’S BAD LUCK TO HAVE AN UNEVEN NUMBER OF GUESTS AT A DINNER TABLE!”

He thought this was some kind of joke, but Papyrus looked at him with complete seriousness. Sans wasn’t sure who could come at first, but then he had a plan and he was gonna make it happen.

“you should invite _______. i’m sure she’d appreciate being invited to a dinner with all of us.”

Papyrus lit up. “OH MY GOSH, THAT’S ACTUALLY A GOOD IDEA! I SHALL GO INVITE HER RIGHT NOW!”

Sans heard Papyrus knock, and then his very loud invitation to you. He could barely hear you, you were speaking so soft. Then Papyrus came back.

“SHE SAID SHE WOULD COME! THIS IS SURE TO BE A WONDERFUL DINNER INDEED!” Papyrus skipped back to his room, and Sans was left in the silent living room. ‘Tonight is sure to be interesting,’ he thought.

Then Sans heard you. He heard your voice, singing a melancholic tune. But then it started to fade, growing farther away. He stood up on instinct and went out to the hall. He could hear it from outside your door, your amazing voice, but then there was something else. He could feel your soul, pulsating with sadness and reaching out for help. So this is what he had sensed when you had first met. It was funny, you hid your lonely and neglected soul almost as well as he did.

He tried to go back to lounging, but the ketchup in the apartment just wasn’t enough for him. He needed some good stuff, so he took a shortcut to Grillby’s. The fire elemental had managed to secure a restaurant on the surface, and it was almost as nice as the one in the underground. He got himself a good old bottle of ketchup, Grillby’s special magic-infused recipe. He chugged it like a kid would chug a milkshake. It felt good going down, and he could feel himself becoming calmer.

“say, grillbz, do ya know anything about girls?”

Grillby’s flames flickered and popped.

“course not, i’m just curious. ...but if there were to be one, what should you do if they’re sad?”

Grillby motioned with his hands as his flames danced in the air, shifting around and licking at the air.

“but it isn’t just that they feel sad, it’s that their soul is sad.”

Grillby’s fire flickered a few more times. Sans’ mouth twitched.

“ok, thanks grillbz.” Sans got up from his stool. “put the drink on my tab.”

Honesty. That was what sad souls wanted? A sad girl soul? Sans pondered this as he took a shortcut back to the hallway.

And as he entered his abode, he looked up and saw a new face. He saw a whole different you. You were wearing nice clothes and makeup, you looked awake, you looked confident, you even smelled like strawberries. You were….beautiful. Your soul was still beating with the depressing aura, but a few spots of brightness shone through. Like trying had made you just a little happier.

So naturally, he had to see what your face would look like if he were to make a joke right then. It indeed was entertaining to see your reaction.

When you all sat down at the table, with Alphys, Undyne, and you on one side, and Frisk, Papyrus, and himself on the other, everything felt right. Frisk said how happy they were with you, gave you their cute drawing, and you looked so happy. He was happy just looking at you be happy. So the next part of the dinner was especially unenjoyable.

He hadn’t expected you to grab a bottle of barbecue sauce from the fridge. It left him in shock when you started to squeeze it onto the macaroni it took Papyrus so long to figure out how to make. He smiled on the inside at your quirky taste, and it’s similarities to his own.

Then he was egged on by Papyrus, and without thinking, he replied with something rude. He wanted to test his limits, how far he could go, but this backfired on him. Papyrus started freaking out, Undyne joined in, everyone was in a bad mood now. Instead of garnering a reaction from you, he got a reaction from everyone else while you sat in silence. He had obviously found a line and crossed it, but not your line.

The kid stood next to you and petted your arm, and then you sat right back up and said everything was fine like the trooper you were. You had been insulted, everyone had been fighting, but you still weren’t running away. He admired you for that, the strength, the determination to keep going. You were everything he wished humans, **all** humans, were. You didn’t hate monsters, but you didn’t treat them any differently than any other human. If anything, you were sarcastic and snarky because that’s who you were.  You had a gorgeous talent, you had passion, and you were _real_.

All of this is what he wanted to say to you in the hallway. He’d said the very bare minimum, but his soul almost begged him to tell you that he wanted to see you happy and felt remorse that he had ruined your night. But even with this bare _bones_ explanation, you still said you wanted to be friends. You asked for his number like it was some cheesy romance movie like the ones Alphys watched. You wanted to be friends with an urchin like him—a baffling choice— and he wanted to be friends with you. It was a strange feeling, to want something. He’d never really wanted before, he’d only ever worked with what he got. You were changing his life in ways that not even he fully understood.

He was so glad that he had bumped into you that morning.


	5. This Song is Lit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All may be settled from the dinner, but more is yet to come

When you went back inside, everyone was mega worried about what happened between you and Sans in the hallway. You reassured them that the two of you had worked out whatever was going on between you two. Sans seemed so much more relaxed now, and it wasn’t fake. You could tell he was actually more at ease. Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus all lined up in front of you.

“WE ARE SO SORRY FOR THIS DISASTROUS DINNER!”

“W-we only wanted to make you f-feel at home. Even though you live across th-the hall…”

“If it weren’t for this deadhead,—” Undyne pointed at Sans. He sniggered at the name. “—everything would’ve gone smoothly!”

Alphys’ head hung low. “We understand if y-you want to leave. After the way this n-night’s gone…” The other two nodded in agreement.

“Are you kidding me? Why would I leave a free dinner?” Sans snorted, and you elbowed him. “And leave my friends. I promise It’s not a big deal.”

All three stepped forward, Papyrus taking your hands in his. “BUT WE HAVE BEEN SO IMPOLITE! NOT EVEN EXTRA HARD PUZZLES WOULD BE PUNISHMENT ENOUGH TO FORGIVE OUR ACTIONS!” He looked down at his brother with a death glare. “SANS INCLUDED.”

You held up your hand. All three went silent. “It’s fine. Sans has said his apologies, and so have you. I just want to enjoy my dinner. Is it too late for that?”

They pondered for a moment, then all of them smiled. Any tension that was left in the air was lifted, and all of you sat back at the table. Frisk was waiting for all of you, and they gave you a big thumbs up. You gave one right back.

All of you chatted the night up over pasta like nothing had even happened. You started to pick up on a few things Frisk would sign, but you still needed Sans’ help translating. You learned that Sans and Papyrus were currently running off of a support system that the Queen of Monsters had set up for monsters upon arriving on the surface that turned their monster money into human money. The system was very poorly made, though, seeing as it made on such short notice and the city didn’t support it well, so the brothers made do with what money they did get at any point. They were basically as poor as you were. What a world.

You also learned that Frisk’s legal guardian was The Queen of Monsters, making them a prince. Not only did this kid walk out of that cave a savior, but a prince of monsters as well. You were eating in the presence of royalty. Royalty that was wearing a striped sweater and ripped shorts, but royalty nonetheless.  AND they were the ambassador to monsters, among those. That was a lot on just one kid’s shoulders, to be all a messiah, a prince, and an ambassador to a race of people.

This was possibly the closest you’d had to a proper dinner since you lived in your parent's house. You’d not cared much for etiquette and properness, so you didn’t bother with cooking, even with guests. Being here with a rag-tag group eating various types of pasta at an unconventional dinner party was a welcome change.

Then Papyrus suggested playing some games that he had gotten from some other monsters who found in the dumpster out back. Twister won the first vote, so everyone got uncomfortably tangled in each other while Sans stayed to the side, flicking the spinner of questionable cleanliness. By the time nobody could move anymore, everyone had also become so turned into a mega pretzel that Sans needed to help everyone get un-pretzeled.

“Ow, your pulling on my hair!”

“A-Ah! My tail!”

“SANS! THE TINY HUMAN’S ARM IS ENTANGLED WITHIN MY ARM!”

The next game was not nearly as physical, but equally as frustrating. Someone had suggested Pictionary, and suddenly everyone was yelling, but not because they were angry. Papyrus was frantically drawing scribbles of whatever was on the card he got, and people were yelling out whatever came to mind, which was anything at this point. When the timer buzzed, he explained he’d been trying to draw a spaceship, but since he didn’t know what that looked like, he couldn’t draw it well.

And then came Jenga. Sans must’ve been some super genius or an engineer or SOMETHING, because whenever it was his turn he stacked them on a lean, but then when he took one of the pieces from the bottom so the tower only had one leg on one side, it didn’t topple. Everyone went from quizzical to frustrated in .03 seconds.

Eventually, people needed to start heading home. Undyne and Alphys left, then Frisk signed that their mom was waiting in the lobby for them, so they left as well. It was just you and the skeletons left.

“Welp, I think I should head out, too. It was a lovely dinner, Papyrus.” His eye sockets almost seemed to sparkle in appreciation. You smiled.

Just as you were about to leave, someone grabbed your hand. You looked back at the owner of the bony hand. “let me walk you back.”

“It’s literally right across the hall.”

Sans didn’t budge, his eyes almost pleading that you go along with it, so you shrugged and let him walk you a few feet to your door. Once you were there, he looked up at you, but it seemed as if he wasn’t looking at your face, but at your chest. You covered yourself, and he looked back into your eyes, all innocent like

“You trying to get a broken bone?”

“sorry, i’m not trying _tibia_ perv.” The jokes weren’t as infuriating now that you knew there was a person behind that smile.

“So what was your situation before? Papyrus said something about this being your first home.” He swayed between his feet. He looked embarrassed, hesitating to say anything.

“when me and pap got to the surface, we barely had anything. we tried selling our old furniture, but the humans didn’t want anything that we had. that’s why tori’s system didn’t work—it relied on the government exchanging human money for monster money, but they didn’t want monster money, even though it was most literally _gold_. so we were living with tori and the kid for a while, but we were saving up for a while to finally get a place of our own. we finally had enough, so we left.

“but we still barely get by. tori has been so supportive, and alphys and undyne have donated any extra money they had, but it’s so….pathetic. i shouldn’t have to rely on others to take care of pap and me. i haven’t found any jobs for someone like me, no one wants a monster working. i can only manage to get little jobs all over the place. heh, reminds me of the underground.”

You put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not shameful to be in a position like this. I mean, all of you walked onto the surface with almost identical situations, side for a few special cases. I’m obviously the privileged one, yet I’m in the same place you are. You can’t beat yourself up over what you can’t control, you just have to keep pushing and hopefully, one day, things will turn around.” Sans stared at you for a while, and you gave a soft laugh. “I should really take my own advice, huh?” He nodded.

“how did you end up this way, anyways? isn’t it easy for you humans to earn money?”

You let out one strong laugh. “This is what happens when you get so busy with college that you don’t have time for a good paying job, and then you graduate and have no money to live off of.” You felt your ironic smile turn bitter. “That’s the American system for you.”

“sounds rough.” Sans smiled sympathetically.

“Yeah, it’s not really a life for any sane person. But I live…..well, survive, really.”

The both of you were laughing about the fact that both of you were in bare minimum living situations. What an odd thing to bond over.

“Hey, I want to make a promise between us.”

Sans’  brow arched in curiosity. “what kind of promise?”

“I want both of us to promise that if either of us needs anything, we will be there.” Sans looked skeptical about this. You just kept smiling. “Broke people have to be there for each other.”

He thought for a second, then nodded. “a promise between two broke-ass hobos.” This comment made you cackle.

“So I guess I should head inside,” you said, pointing to your door.

“yeah.” Sans kept standing there, and your smile stretched awkwardly.

“Are you gonna leave, or…?” Sans blinked rapidly, almost like coming out of a trance.

“oh, right, sorry. i got distracted. i’ll leave you to it.” He shuffled over to his door, glancing back over at you several times before finally closing the door behind him.

You shook your head with an amused smile as you walked into your apartment and closed the door behind you. You slid off your shoes, then shimmied out of your skirt. You knew it was gonna take a little bit to scrub off your eye makeup, and it was gonna suck. You almost didn’t want to, either, it was too pretty. So you took out your phone and snapped a photo of your face, just to remember that time you didn’t look like trash.

After a good face scrub, you stripped down and threw on your PJs. But just as you were about to just go straight bed, you decided to watch some TV beforehand. You slumped into your recliner and flicked on the TV. Random sounds met your ears as you clicked through the channels, and then you settled on the news channel.

“-and that does it for today’s repor- wait, hold on, we are gutting a surprise cast from the corner of Eighth and Sigma where one of our reporters was passing.” Eighth, that was the street your apartment building was on.

The newswoman continued with a serious, yet shocked face. “It looks like a local business has been attacked, and rather violently.”

At first, it didn’t register in your mind, but it was right in front of you and you couldn’t believe your eyes. You were almost too horrified to move, but then it was quite the opposite. You jumped into your boots and threw open your door with such force you bet the wall was damaged. You didn’t even bother closing the door as you sprinted down the hallway.

“yo, what’s up?” Sans peeked out his door in concern, but you ignored him and dashed for the stairwell, not even bothering with the elevator. You heard Sans call after you as you ran so fast down the stairs, you were surprised you didn’t trip.

Perturbed bystanders glanced at you as you ran past them at full speed, dodging anyone you could. You knew that place, it was only a few blocks away. And seeing the scene up close was like a nightmare.

That wonderful bakery you had visited that morning was engulfed in flames, the fire threatening to wash over the neighboring buildings. Firemen were just now arriving at the scene. Onlookers gawked in a mix of awe and terror.

You felt someone appear next to you, but you could barely acknowledge their presence over what was happening. The person spoke. “holy shit.”

You dropped to your knees, unable to respond. This was only a handful of hours after you’d met the lovely young woman. You could only imagine what this would do to her livelihood, assuming that she made it out of the fire alive.

Holy shit indeed.

 

The police arrived at some point, and both you and Sans got tangled up in questionings and impromptu interviews with the press since you were a witness to the fire before they could get there. You couldn’t provide much information on it, you’d gotten there after the perps had left, Sans even later. Then you saw that the news people over on Sans’ side of things were asking some fishy questions, so you stepped in.

“I’m sorry, we really should be going. No more questions, please.” You pulled on the sleeve of his jacket, dragging him with you back to the complex. The reporters tried following you, but they knew they needed to interview the other witnesses, so they backed off. The only reason they were following in the first place was because Sans was the only monster at the scene. As you two walked back to the apartments, Sans stayed quiet, which showed that he was being serious. Well, after witnessing a scene like that anyone would be in a dour mood.

You called the elevator, and you both stepped in. You noticed you were still gripping his jacket and quickly let go. Despite everything that just happened and how obviously upset Sans looked, he didn’t say a word. In fact, he stared at the elevator doors like they challenged him to a staring contest, and he stared with intensity. You weren’t sure how to respond or try to lift the mood, but you tried anyways.

“Y’know i just thought of a really funny joke. Why did the alcoholic ghost get in the elevator?” Sans kept staring, but he gave the slightest movement that resembled a shrug.

“To lift his spirits!” You waited for him to give any response, any at all. Then he whipped his head around to look up at you. His smile was stretched forcefully across his face, his brow bones were furrowed deeply, and his eye sockets were almost like black pits, his dot-pupils gone. You jumped back slightly, scared by the sudden movement and terrifying face. It was almost like a jump scare.

“how can you possibly still be tellin’ jokes after we just saw?” You stood for a moment, unsure of what he meant.

“I guess I’m just trying to lighten the mood…” You smile nervously.

Sans’ eerie smile twitched as he was instantly irritated and bemused at your response. “you were the one who ran out there all upset in the first place! and yet here you are, telling terrible jokes to cheer me up.” Sans looked away for a moment. “i just don’t understand…”

There was an awkward silence, then you piped up. “Did you know that was a monster-owned bakery?” Sans looked at you in shock. You nodded knowingly. “I applied for a job there just today. The lady running it was so nice, and she was having trouble getting by, too. I was really hoping she’d hire me, but now…..”

A reluctant tear fell down your cheek, but you wiped it away quickly. You’d always felt empathy for others, it was something your parents never understood, no one understood. Why attach yourself to things that have nothing to do with you? But you did anyway, and you always paid for it, so now you hid it behind sarcasm and snarky comments. This was a moment where you slipped up, you let it show. You hated being vulnerable.

“Did you know her? She was a monster with, like, six arms and several eyes. Like a spider, almost,” you asked hopefully.

“bud, not all monsters know each other. we might not have as many people, but there's still enough to still have strangers. it’s not like i got out enough to meet people, either.” You smiled weakly. You hoped that she made it out of the building alive, or that she wasn’t even in it when the fire was lit.

The elevator finally sang a little tune that you were on your floor, and both of you stepped out. Now both of you were in a depressed mood, but just as you thought the both of you would part ways and try to erase this blemish on this great day, Sans rested his hand on your arm. You looked down at him, and he looked up at you with a face full of confliction. Emotion flicked back and forth in his eyes.

“do you think….we could just hang out for a bit?”

“What, like out here?”

Sans permanent smile quirked at the sides. “yes, let’s just sit in the hallway outside the comfort of our homes,” he said, obviously being sarcastic.

You gave a loud heave. “Wouldn’t call it ‘comfortable’, persae.” Sans sighed in agreement with a bob of his head.

“but comfort aside, i was actually wondering if you wanted to come with me to a really nice spot i go to a lot. i was actually there earlier today. i think it’ll be better than thinking about …..that alone.”

You thought about it for a moment. What kind of place would this be? A park? A club? You hoped with all your heart that he didn’t mean an alley to get drugs or something. But you still said…

“Sure. Anything to get my mind off of that horrible mess.” Sans brightened up a bit at that.

“great.”


	6. Legato, Through and Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both a happy and sad conclusion to a strange night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for your patience(if your reading this as it was posted). My chapters are starting to catch up with me, so bear with me while i try to keep up with it. Thanks, love ya'll, and love yourselves!

You certainly needed something to ease your mind from recent events, but a hangout with Sans certainly wasn’t what you’d thought of. But you were doing it anyways.

“let me just lock up,” Sans said as he pulled a ring of keys out of his jacket pocket. “and maybe you need to take care of things too?”

He motioned up and down with his hand, and you looked down and realized you definitely weren’t dressed to go out anywhere. PJs were not really meant to be worn outside of the house.

“Yeah, I’ll go change and grab some things. See you in five?,” you said, finger gunning at him. He finger gunned back, and both of you separated. You entered your apartment and went straight to your bedroom. This place Sans was taking you probably wouldn’t be too fancy, considering he’s just as broke as you and can’t pay for much. Sweatpants and a comfy hoodie was probably what you wanted, seeing how he didn’t dress any better.

On cue, the floorboards creaked as you walked on them to the bathroom. You assessed the damage in the mirror, and somehow small amounts of soot had made its way to your face and your hair was windblown, but not in a good way. You splashed water on your face and scrubbed on some face mask to look less like a zombie, then swiped a comb through your hair. Once you were satisfied with the look, you walked back to the living room and grabbed your backpack and keys.

The lock clicked when you turned the key on the door, and you turned around and Sans was standing there, ready to go. He motioned for you to follow him. Both of you stepped back into the elevator, but now you were in a better mood. You were still sad, but less so now. The elevator almost seemed to move three times faster now, and before you knew it, you were walking down Eighth with your skeleton friend, the opposite way of the fire. Even though there had just been a devastating fire just a few blocks away, the streets were bustling and people around you were talking and laughing. It was almost as if the street was split into two sections, and one was completely unaware of the other.

When Sans and yourself had walked a few streets, he finally stopped in front of a quaint building. It was a colder night, but the building almost radiated heat. You looked in the window and could see how many people were inside, and there were many. It looked like classy joint, and the sign that read ‘Grillby’s’ certainly added to the aesthetic. You recognized it as the place that must’ve made the ketchup Sans drank at dinner. Sans stepped inside, and you followed after cautiously.

The inside was even cozier than the outside looked, though it wasn’t because of the decoration. If anything, the actual interior was very cheap looking, thrown together from what was available, which made sense if the monsters had no real access to good money. What made it feel cozy was that there were people chatting and laughter echoed off the walls like it was the Grand Canyon. The many different types of monsters there reminded you that the monster race was truly extensive, even more so than the many different races of humans. But just as you stepped inside, everyone went silent and stared at you, some with anger, some with fear. Anxiety set in and you so wished you could walk back out, but Sans was now pulling you by your own sleeve.

“‘s okay, guys. she’s with me, she’s okay.” Some monsters relaxed and went back to their conversations, but others kept giving you glances that let you know they didn’t trust you. And that was quite understandable, considering the heinous acts your species committed against them for simply existing.

Sans sat at a stool at the bar, and you sat beside him. It was only then that you noticed the most interesting monster there. It resembled a man, but if he were on fire. This person was wearing a black vest and tie over a white button up and somehow NOT burning them to ash. He was casually polishing some glasses with a rag behind the counter, adjusting his (quite honestly) cute glasses on his non-existent face. He calmly looked up at you, and you quickly looked away, not wanting to seem rude.

“so, what’ll you have? they have some really good burgers and fries, but Grillby also managed to get some human alcohol if that’s what your taste is.”

You shook your head. “I don’t drink. Alcohol doesn’t fix anything, in my experience. Just makes things worse.” Sans nodded in understanding. “I’d really love some fries and some juice if they have it?”

“i’m sure grillbz has something,” Sans answered, motioning to the bartender. The living bonfire nodded in response and walked through a door to the side.

As you waited for your food, you could feel people’s eyes on you. You crossed your arms over the counter, hunching your shoulders. Sans must’ve noticed this because he hit you in the arm playfully. “they’re just nervous. humans don’t come here, and when they do, it’s never good. don’t take it personally.”

His reassurement did help you not feel so anxious, but the spotlight was still on you. This was still better than seeing that scene among the embers on a cold November night. So close to Thanksgiving, too….

The door to the side flew open and Grillby returned with a basket of fries, a glass bottle of swirling red liquid, and a bottle of ketchup. He got out a tall glass and poured the curious substance in it, and the swirls circling the glass were almost glittery. You reached out when he held up the glass, but then retracted when he pulled it back and put it over his other hand. The flames on his hand licked at the glass, and the contents changed from deep red to bright red and orange. When he handed it to you, you expected it to be hot, but it was only slightly warm. Magic, everybody.

Grillby set the fries in front of you, then slid the ketchup to Sans, who nodded in thanks. You looked at the man, trying to figure him out. He was MADE of fire and wasn’t setting anything ablaze. He hadn’t spoken a single word since you’d arrived. He was the only one in the establishment(besides Sans, of course) that hadn’t made it painfully obvious that you were the odd one out. Then again, the owner of any business shouldn’t make their patrons uncomfortable unless they want them to leave a bad review on Yelp. You decided to stop scrutinizing the monster and focus on eating your food.

You took a fry from the basket and dropped it on your tongue. Evaluating against every other fry you’ve had, it was a pretty good fry. It probably made it in your top three. You looked to Sans, who was just sitting there….drinking ketchup. You weren’t even sure how you were doing it, he just held the bottle up to his teeth and squeezed, and somehow the ketchup went inside and stayed inside. He looked to you when he noticed you were looking at him as well. Your cheeks tinged pink a bit when you pointed to his ketchup. He understood, sliding you the bottle. You squirted a little bit in the corner of the basket and passed it back to him. You then assessed that the ketchup did, in fact, improve the taste greatly. No wonder Sans was drinking ketchup from here.

Finally, you worked up the courage to try the drink Grillby had made for you. The suspense of lifting the glass to your lips was excruciating. Would this taste good? Was this gonna poison you? Was this a Sans prank and it would taste like skunk farts and burnt cabbage? You slowly sipped at the vibrant liquid, and you almost felt all your troubles melt away.

It felt warm and fuzzy, it felt like everything around you was turning into a log cabin with a nice fireplace right in front of you. You felt all of your muscle tension disappear, and you put your hands up to soak in the warm energy of the imaginary fire. You wished you could’ve stayed like that forever, but soon the feeling left you like a vivid dream.

“woah, bud, don’t get too relaxed, you’ll fall off the stool.” Startled by the sudden voice, you gave a small yelp. Sans was just as startled and jumped a bit. The fire you’d been basking in turned out to be Grillby, to which you quickly pulled your hands to your chest in embarrassment.

“S-sorry. When I drank that, it felt so……”

“calm? warm?”

“Yes, exactly! What is this stuff?” you asked him, staring into the glass like it was a lava lamp, which it pretty much was.

Sans answered with an amused grin. “it’s basically like liquid magic, but really watered down and concocted to invoke a certain feeling.” He explained, “grillby’s magic usually has that effect on people anyways, but this stuff almost has a kick to it. This stuff specifically is supposed to help people relax and forget what has been upsetting them.”

You hummed, but only understanding a little bit. “So it’s like alcohol but without getting mega drunk and destroying your liver.”

“well, that entirely depends on how much you drink, but pretty much.” He pointed to the rabbit monster sitting by the door, and you could definitely see that they were mad conked out. You laughed, but tried to keep it discreet. “a lot of monster food is infused with magic. helps us keep up our magic, it even has healing properties. the purer the magic in the food, the more it’ll affect you. that’s why this stuff is so strong.”

You nodded your head. You’d heard about a select few food critics trying monster food and saying it was the best food they’d ever had. But you’d also heard the government telling the public to not ingest any of the food for fear of “infectious diseases” or some shit. They were just a bunch of scaredy-cat tards who didn’t want to bother actually looking into monster culture.

Both of you chattered for a while, and you really started to get comfortable. When you got past your anxiety, this place strangely felt like more of a home than your actual home. For once, there wasn’t a deadline for rent, or pressure to get a job, or the uncertainty of your future. There was only this moment, and how utterly accepted you felt just being around one person, even surrounded by people who didn’t feel the same towards you.

Why couldn’t all bars be like this?

 

Sans offered to walk you home once the both of you had decided you had stayed out way too late, which you gladly accepted. Which, as you thought about it later, you would’ve been walking in the same direction anyways, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyways whether he asked or not. Thoughts aside, the walk back to your house was so much more peaceful than the walk to Grillby’s. You felt like you were walking on air.

As you rode the elevator up to your floor, you felt slightly disoriented and wobbly. You had to lean against the wall to prevent from just collapsing on the floor. If it weren’t for Sans’ explanation of the drink and its effects, you would’ve assumed you’d been roofied. That was certainly a fear of yours, being taken advantage of, and that's why you hardly ever visited bars.

You only ever did go when Jaala made a convincing case for you to accompany her to one. You couldn’t ever say no to Jaala, she was your best friend since high school, even if your styles clashed. She was the smooth seductress in Balenciaga heels, and you were the extremely reclusive rodent shoved in hand-me-down clothing. It was a strange relationship, where she took the lead and you were the spunky sidekick.

But with Sans, you felt more….balanced. There wasn’t a pull of power, a spotlight shining on one or the other. It was just two people hanging out, and it was so refreshing. When was the last time you’d not felt like trash standing next to someone? Obviously, a long time, since it seemed like you’d never not felt like trash EVER. You still were garbage, but you and Sans were both garbage, walking the street like it didn’t matter. _‘_ Not to insult Sans, though, he’s really chill and a good guy! I just recognize the similarities between me and him and assess from there!’ you justified to yourself. ‘But if me and him are so similar and he isn’t trash, then why am I trash?’

 ** _‘You know full well why,’_** the voice in the back of your mind said. **_‘Because you are a horrible person, you wreak havoc everywhere you go. You don’t deserve to be_** **_happy.’_**

This is not how you wanted to feel right now, you weren’t going to let your self deprecating shit get in the way of your one feel-good moment. For once, you were out of your rat hole and you were feeling okay. You shook your head and pushed it against the wall of the elevator. ‘Please, just let me have this. I don’t care about what’s happened today, I hate feeling useless.’

**_‘Deny it all you want, but you can’t change what’s true. You ARE useless, and the more you push it out, the more it’ll come back to remind you of your true nature.’_ **

“kid, what’s wrong?” The feeling of a bony hand on your arm was enough to wake you up from those awful thoughts, but you were so startled you fell flat on your butt with a yelp, the things in your backpack jingling and jostling from the fall. Sans looked at you like you had just died. You weren’t sure why he was looking at you with such concern and worry until you touched your face and felt tears staining your cheeks. They still were dripping from your red and puffy eyes. God, how pathetic, losing your composure like this.

You tried to smile like nothing was wrong. “That weird magic drink must’ve made me emotional, I’m fine!” you sang. He didn’t seem convinced.

**_‘That spider monster burned because of your kind.’_ **

Tears kept dripping. “I think I might’ve gotten something in my eye, too.”

Sans stepped closer to you.

**_‘Your life is in shambles because of you and your inability to make good choices.’_ **

You put up your hands in protest. “I’m fine, really!”

Your voiced cracked. He knelt down in front of you.

**_‘These people will be decimated because of you.’_ **

“Please, don’t worry about me…”

Sans leaned in and wrapped his arms around you.

**_‘Everything wrong with your life is what’s wrong with you.’_ **

Your vision blurred as thicker droplets seeped into your eyes. “Please…”

Sans hugged you tighter. Almost tight enough that you thought his bones might detach from the pressure. It was almost like he felt what you felt.

“I can’t do this anymore…”

And so there you two were. Him clutching you in his arms, you bawling your eyes out like you were a baby begging for your bottle. Any more thoughts you had weren’t heard, they were drowned out by your cries of pain. Eventually, you were heaving, completely unable to breathe.

Between wheezes, you were able to sob, “I’m alone.”

“no, you aren’t. you’re never alone.”

“But I am.”

Sans pulled away and gripped you firmly by the shoulders. “what about that promise we made? ‘that if either of us needs anything, we will be there’? didn’t that mean anything?”

You could only sit there and hiccup and cry. Sans leaned back in and embraced you, but more gentle than before. “you are not alone. this world is too big for one single person to be all alone, especially someone as great as you.”

This was just so much. But against all instincts, your heavy arms slowly lifted themselves to go around Sans’ torso. The two of you stayed like that, relishing in comfort, completely unaware that the elevator had stopped on their floor ages ago.

Sans nudged your cheek with his own. “take care of yourself, kid. ‘cause someone really cares about you.”

 

When you fell asleep in his arms, Sans honestly wasn’t sure what to do. A small skeleton with a slightly bigger unconscious human. He started by clicking the button to open the elevator doors. He tried picking you up, but you were way too heavy for him to handle without just turning to dust right then and there. He grabbed your ankles and attempted dragging you, but that didn’t get very far, either, only managing to get you out of the elevator. Your limp body just laid there in the hallway, and he stood there unsure of how to handle this. Then he got an idea, but it was a last resort kind of thing.

The blue magic that surrounded his hand glimmered in the fluorescent light of the hallway, and the same magic started to coax out your soul. Usually, this would be considered really invasive, to just force out someone’s soul without their permission, unless it was for battle. It was a lot harder to make a soul come out of an unconscious person, as well. Matters concerning souls were extremely complicated, and beginning to explain it was almost like human parents explaining “the birds and the bees” to their human children. Sans snorted. Sans had only learned the phrase upon coming to the surface, which he joked to himself how silly humans were with that stuff. Papyrus had been so confused when he first heard the phrase, and Sans just let him stew in confusion.

When your soul finally came out from your chest, Sans marveled at it. The deep blue heart resonated above you, pulsing with your heartbeat. When he had been staring at your chest earlier that night, he had been trying to piece together what soul you would have. He didn’t know what color he was expecting your soul to be, but he was glad it was this one. He knew that you weren’t just being a good person; you were BUILT to be a good person. His blue magic blended in with the tint of the little heart as it surrounded your soul. He very carefully guided the soul up, and with it, your body. You quietly snored, cute little sleeping noises, as you floated in the air towards your apartment.

Sans stopped at the door, then realized he’d need a key for the lock. He sighed heavily as he lowered you enough to reach into your bag and rustle around for some keys. After touching numerous amounts of objects he didn’t bother looking to see, he finally found them attached to an old-looking lanyard with “Arctic Monkeys” printed on it and a bunch of other things attached. There were many cute keychains, one of them being a little figurine of a skeleton character he’d learned was named “Jack Skellington”. He’d have to tease you about that later and ask about “Arctic Monkeys”, whatever that was.

He saw that a little quilted wallet was attached as well, your ID on the back with a ridiculously dated photo of yourself on it. Sans saw something sticking out of the slot where the ID sat, and though he hated to have been so intrusive already, he was curious. Against his assumptions of what it was, it was a little folded up photo. He unfolded it, and he was glad he did after all. It was a picture of a much younger you, maybe 14 or 15, in a group hug with two other people, a man, and a woman. They must’ve been your parents. In the background, there was a stage and colorful lights and banners. All three people were smiling, but you looked the happiest with your toothy grin and squinty eyes.

Sans slipped the photo back into its little slot and put the house key into the doorknob. He nudged the door open with his foot as he carefully guided you inside. He slid your backpack off your shoulders and was about to leave you on your recliner, but he knew that wouldn’t be comfortable for you. He hesitantly stepped down the hallway to the last door on the right and there was your room. It was messy—not nearly messy as his own, of course—and the bed took up almost half of the room. It looked comfy with its old blankets and mismatched pillows. He set you down so your head rested on a pillow, and he could hear you sigh in relief. Your shoes clattered to the floor as he slipped them off your feet. One of the blankets at your feet looked comfy enough, so he draped it over your sleeping body.

As he did this, he thought about what had happened. Had Grillby’s magic cocktail really affected you that much, or was this all you? If this was the drink, then damn did Grillby’s magic have a huge kick to it for humans. But if it was you…….You must be going through some heavy shit. And he would be lying if he said he didn’t relate to your sadness. When he was done thinking and tucking you in, he decided it was time for him to stop invading on every aspect of your life.

Just when was about to leave the apartment, he decided to grab a pen and a stray newspaper sitting on the kitchen counter and scribble a note, so you knew what had happened. He clipped it to the refrigerator with a magnet, then gave the apartment one last scan. Windows? All locked. Backpack and keys? Sitting by the front door. He exited the apartment, then flicked his wrist, a click coming from both the door and his wrist. Door? Locked.

When he got back to his own place, he let himself fall onto the couch. ‘what a night,’ he thought to himself. His eyes drooped closed, and he fell into a peaceful sleep. What a night, indeed.


	7. A Striking Chord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see our favorite duo meet our best friend, and we learn more about Jaala! A relaxing chapter after five chapters of one day's worth of drama......or is it?

The first thing that came to your mind when you regained consciousness was, “Did last night actually happen?” It felt like a dream, like a warped alternate universe. So much happened in one day, you emotions were all over the place. As you sat up in your bed, the only proof you had was that you hadn’t changed into pajamas, which was something you always did. Your shoes were sitting at the end of your bed, and your bedroom door was closed. More proof.

Standing up made your body ache, a thrum of buzzing spreading across all of your muscles, creating the physical version of TV static. You ignored it as you walked to the main room of the apartment. It didn’t look like anything was out of place, nothing super suspicious to cause any worry. When you went to the kitchen to grab some water that might clear your head of this paranoia, you saw a newspaper clipped to the fridge. The chicken scratch all over the front of it was barely legible as it was, not even accounting for it being written over print that made it even harder to read, but you were able to make out that it was a note.

 _“hey there, buddy. just wanted to leave a note explaining some things. i ended up having to drop you off back at your place after some stuff happened in the elevator.”_ The elevator? You thought back to the last thing you could remember and groaned in disgust at yourself. You had followed through on the “making an ass of yourself”, but that was DEFINITELY not what you meant by it. The note continued. _“sorry to intrude on your apartment and things without your permission, but i couldn’t really ask, could i? anyways, hope you’re doing better in the morning. sans.”_

Welp, this was possibly the worst leverage Sans could have over you. He had witnessed you at your lowest in a LONG time, and only God could know what he did when he was in your apartment. To your things, to _you_?

Oh, no no no no no. You weren’t going to assume things like that about Sans, especially after how he supported you all night. Friends don’t go assuming that other friends would do weird things to them. As they say, “when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me”. You might have your own bullshit anxiety and self-depreciation fuckery going on, but you wouldn’t let that find its way to your image of Sans. He had been a good guy, and where he had flaws, he had made up for them. You made a mental note to thank him later.

With that all said and done, you needed to clean up. Big time. You showered, a refreshing cleanse your body desperately needed, and put on the comfiest pair of sweatpants and sweater you had on hand. Feeling like a crisp one dollar bill straight out of the press, you made yourself a lovely breakfast of raw toast topped with peanut brulee. In other words, bread and peanut butter. A delicious, nutritious breakfast that Michelle Obama would be proud of.

A lazy breakfast to fit a lazy morning, one of which you spent in front of the TV for a while, watching casts of the fire that went down last night. You were seen in a few of them, Sans as well. Those pushy reporters had cut out the part where the almost chased you and Sans down for more “details”. You were glad when they finally moved on to other witnesses. No one seemed to know how the fire started, which made you mad. The thugs that did this deserved to pay for something that gruesome, that traumatic.

A buzz came from your phone. You picked it up, not checking who it was first.

“Hello?”

“knock knock.”

A great start to a day. “Sans, I don’t-”

“you’re supposed to say who’s there.”

You sighed in resignation. “Who’s there.”

“annie.”

“Annie who?”

“annie-body gonna open this door?”

Confused, you stood up and looked through the peephole in the front door, and low and behold, there was the short pun master himself, holding his phone and staring up at the door like he knew you were looking through at him.

You opened the door for him, and he smiled up at you with that permanent smile of his. A look of unamusement would’ve been your usual approach to a bad joke like that, but you had to admit, the joke was well placed. You gave in to it and let your mouth turn up at the sides leaning against the door frame and crossing your arms.

“So, what are you up to this morning, Annie?” He snickered at your own play on his joke.

“nothin’ much. just checkin’ in on the a-door-able neighbor.”

“Oh, haha, funny joke. But seriously, I’m sorry about last night, I really didn’t mean to lay it all on you. I promise I’m almost never like that.”

“don’t worry about it, pal. i get it, there was a lot going on and it got to you. i don’t blame you for that,” he told you.

“Still it’s really impolite of me to be that way all of a sudden, out of nowhere.”

Sans held up his hand, one digit pointing out. “i basically broke into your home, so i’m not any better, am i?”

“Yeah, you managed to simultaneously help me and do a bad thing at the same time.”

“well, i wasn’t about to let you sleep on my smelly couch,” he retorted. “we both were a little weird last night, how ‘bout we just call it even?”

You feigned reluctance, which made Sans arch a bony brow at you. You laughed and stuck out a hand. “Sure, I _guess_ that sounds okay.” Sans’ grin widened in one corner, seeing right through your little act.

The buzz from your phone vibrated in your pocket. You pulled it out and actually checked who it was this time, and saw it was Jaala. You pointed to your phone, silently asking if you could pause the conversation to answer. He gave a short nod and stepped back from your door. The moment your finger met the answer button, Jaala was all over you.

“Did you see that crazy fire just a few blocks from your place? Oh, you had to have seen it, but I’m asking anyway. That shit is nuts, man!”

Jaala being twittery Jaala. “Yeah, I actually saw it for myself up close, it was pretty wild and pretty scary.”

“Yeah, I saw on the news this morning. They were asking you and that skeleton dude some weird ass questions,” she remarked. “And now I see that you weren’t lying to my face about your new neighbor. Sorry about that, sweetie.” Sans chuckled, and you shushed him.

“See, you should have more faith in me, I’m not ALWAYS making bad excuses to get out of real life.”

“Oh, I do have faith in you, hon, I just worry about you sometimes. Did you apply anywhere, by the way? If you haven’t yet-”

You interjected her statement. “Yes, I went to many places yesterday just so you’d lay off me a bit. That place that burned…...was actually one of the places I went to. The lady running it was so nice.”

“....Sweet pea, I am so sorry you had to go through something like that.”

“I just can’t believe stuff like that still happens.”

“Me neither,” Jaala consoled. Suddenly her tone was much brighter. “Tell you what, how about you and your bone boy and whoever else come have breakfast? My treat.”

You looked to Sans, who seemed to appreciate the little nickname, shrugged his shoulders in indifference. You took charge. “Sure, that sounds great. We’ll be there…...whenever we get there.”

You could hear Jaala snorting on the other end. “I’ll tell TJ to get out of here for the day. See you then!” And with that, the phone clicked out of the call.

Sans looked up at you expectantly. “So—” You clapped your hands together. “—are you and Papyrus prepared to meet my really overbearing mom-friend?”

  


When Sans had gone to tell Papyrus that he would be meeting your friend for breakfast, you could hear his excitement from your apartment as you were gathering your things. The taller skeleton dude sure did have a set of non-existent pipes. He was bouncing up and down like a little kid when you got back out to the hall. Sans looked the same as always but he somehow looked just a little bit more relaxed.

“I’M GOING TO MEET THE HUMAN’S FRIEND!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!”

“yeah, this is sure to be interesting.”

You groaned. Yep, this sure was going to be an ordeal, Jaala, Sans, and Papyrus all in the same room. Jaala was sure to have many inquiries about them and the brothers were sure to reciprocate. Not to mention how they’d grill you for embarrassing facts to spice things up. You knew how these things went.

The building Jaala lived in was far away, like three miles away, so you guys had to call a cab. Luckily, the driver didn’t give you guys shit for Sans and Papyrus being monsters, but he did give you shit for Papyrus for being so damn TALL. So, to make room for Papyrus, you had to sit up front, which cabbies generally don’t really allow. At least, not in your city.

After horrendous traffic and uncomfortable silence, the three of you finally arrived at the fancy building, where Jaala lived at the very top. The inside of the place looked even more luxurious than the outside, with the large crystal chandelier and the red and gold tapestries everywhere like it was the Queen of England’s castle. Papyrus was getting more excited by the second, while Sans looked disconcerted by it all. You knew the feeling, being poor as hell and being around this used to make you uncomfortable, but you learned to appreciate that your friend was able to get this far in so little time. You were proud of Jaala for defying the system and stereotypes. But you still sometimes wished the place didn’t have to show off how upper class it was.

The man behind the desk looked up and, recognizing you, opened the elevator for you. Yep, it was one of those places. Any visitors needed to be buzzed into the penthouse to avoid intruders. This building housed people with either fame, power, or money, or all three. Jaala worked a really important position in a popular corporation in the city, you weren’t sure of the technical stuff. She had so many associations with people and companies and establishments because of it, so it was safe to say she qualified to live here. Most people would take advantage of her connections, but you being the “good person” you were and her being your second mom, you were without her assistance in anything.

The elevator ride was extremely smooth, and there was even smooth jazz playing over the speakers. Huh, that was new. They must’ve added that since the last time you were here. It certainly helped the elevator ride seem less long. Even the elevator ding was fancy as hell, a cute little ding. As the golden doors opened up to let you out, all of you were in awe, even you, who had been here numerous times. You couldn’t help yourself.

The penthouse was much larger and more modern than the lobby, leaning towards retro and artistic more than anything. There was a large chandelier that resembled silver rain with strands of crystal dangling from hoops, and under it was a large comfy-looking couch and an aquarium coffee table. The largest flat screen you would ever see was embedded in the stone wall, surrounded by large ferns. There were various art pieces hanging on the walls, paintings, and antique masks and other things you couldn’t list in your head in such a short time. The entire place was open concept and had an extremely tall angled ceiling, and the large glass wall brightened everything up. You would be jealous if it was your taste.

Papyrus did not hesitate to bound inside and gape at everything, and Sans just stood beside you, uncomfortable and unsure. You nudged Sans with a smile and lead him inside. He didn’t make an effort to move on his own, but he didn’t resist as you dragged him by the hand.

“So these are the fabled neighbors, huh?” You turned to see Jaala coming from a side hallway. She was dressed in a flowy blouse and black skinny, paired with silver ankle boots and jewelry that contrasted her chocolate skin tone. This was one of her more relaxed looks among her fabulous collection of clothing. It was almost unusual to see her without any obviously designer clothing or at least a handbag, but you guessed Jaala wanted to keep it real for the guests. You also saw that Jaala had her hair done in thick African braids, a change from her usual natural look or a poofy bun.

“OH, I HAVE BEEN TOLD IN FABLES? WOWIE! I DIDN’T KNOW YOU TOLD STORIES OF ME, HUMAN!,” Papyrus exclaimed, turning to you with the cutest smile. He misunderstood the simplest phrases, and in other people, it would have you labeling them as naive and stupid, but you could only see him just as who he was. Jaala smirked and put her hands on her hips.

“You always did have a knack for making strange friends, _________,” Jaala commented as she walked closer to you. “But I can’t really say much, considering I’m your bestie.” She threw an arm around your shoulders and pulled you in for a tight, affectionate hug.

“Yeah, you are,” you conceded.

She parted from you and turned to face the two other people in the room. “So are we just gonna stand here, or are you gonna introduce me to your new buds?”

Papyrus jumped at this and immediately took Jaala’s hand and shook it just as fiercely as when you two had first met. “HELLO, HUMAN NEIGHBOR’S FRIEND! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND I AM HONORED TO HAVE BEEN INVITED TO EAT WITH YOU!”

Jaala looked extremely amused with Papyrus and his overwhelming introduction, and she showed this when she turned her head to you and arched a brow with a smirk. You just shrugged, you couldn’t explain Papyrus and his…...greatness.

“AND THIS IS MY BROTHER SANS!” Jaala turned to look at the shorter skeleton, who looked up at her with a strange and unidentifiable look. He held out his hand, and you noticed it. Just before you could warn her, Jaala grasped Sans’ hand, and there was a buzz. You thought she’d have lost it, and Papyrus gaped in utter shock at the audacity of his brother, but she burst into tears from laughter.

“Dear Lord, that was good!” Sans looked confused. “Hoo, buddy, it’s been a while since somebody’s played a prank on me like that.”

Sans’ flat brow bones arched up on newfound appreciation. “i guess i really hit your _funny bone_.” Papyrus tried to hold in his screams, while you patted his arm in understanding. Jaala, however, seemed to absolutely love Sans’ jokes.

“Excuse me for my rudeness. I’m Jaala Decker.” She gave one of her signature award-winning smiles to the boys, and you could tell it won them over. That smile really was her secret weapon, regularly using it to secure business deals and such.

“Alright, guys, go take a seat at the table and I’ll get started on breakfast!,” Jaala chirped. All three of you sat at the futuristic dining set, the brothers opting to sit together, and you on the other with an open seat next to you for Jaala. From where you sat, you could see Jaala working in the kitchen. She had tied up her braids to keep them behind her and had on a colorful apron you recognized from your youth. It was an apron her mother had made for her on her 13th birthday, and it made Jaala so happy. Seeing Jaala wear it brought back memories, and you could tell Jaala felt happier while wearing it.

“Hey, J, do you need any help?” you called to her. She waved a hand in the air.

“Nah, I’m good.” Not believing her, you got up and went to the kitchen, where she was trying to carry a lot of supplies at once to the kitchen island. You took half of it for her and sat it down. She looked at you with disapproval.

“You left our guests all alone!”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine, J, they can handle themselves. Just wanna help a sister out.” Jaala was a stubborn soul, so you were sure she’d kick you out, but to your surprise, she sighed and handed you some supplies to lay out.

“Just go get the flour from the top shelf in the cabinet.” You nodded and hopped over to where she pointed you. You got up on your tippy toes, and still, you were too short to reach the dang thing. Then you saw a red-gloved hand reach over you and brag the bag of flour with ease. You turned, and there was Papyrus.

“PERHAPS I CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE?” Before you could answer, Jaala grabbed the bag from his hands and brought it back to her station.

“Might as well, seeing as I am making breakfast for four, something I haven’t done in years.” Papyrus looked elated and skipped over to Jaala for instruction. It looked like Jaala was getting along with your friends, which you’d been worried about. You felt the presence next to you, and being used to it at this point, turned to look at the only person left to join this breakfast club of sorts.

“sorry to crash the party. but it looks like pap already did that.” Sans gazed at Papyrus and Jaala, preparing and mixing ingredients. They were bickering a bit, Papyrus being unfamiliar with whatever Jaala was planning to make, and Jaala being shook at the idea of spaghetti for breakfast. Sans and yourself chuckled at the parallels. “looks like pap is having fun.”

“Yeah, he is. What about you?”

“hmm?”

“Are you having fun, Sans?” He looked up at you in surprise, like he’d never been asked a question like that before. “What’s up? Cat got your tongue?”

“...nah, i’m good,” he grinned up at you. “i’m feeling _purr_ -fect.”

You groaned, Papyrus screeched like a pterodactyl, and Jaala howled with laughter. Three majorly different reactions, and Sans seemed to take all three in with stride. But in spite of all that, the four of you worked on making breakfast for one another. Papyrus vigorously mixed batter, you sliced and prepared various meats, Jaala cooked the batter, and Sans “supervised”. He did help plating everything, and when everything was set out, it looked quite delicious.

Jaala had decided to make cajun chicken and waffles, maple bacon, and hashbrowns with fried onions. It tasted more delicious than it looked, as always with Jaala. She was the best cook you knew, and that would be credited to her insistence that she hand make everything. Classic Jaala, not accepting the easy way.

The brothers seemed to really enjoy the good food, though Papyrus had some comments to throw in. You were surprised that Jaala hadn’t thrown him out for criticizing her cooking, something you knew she held dear to her, but she actually seemed to like it. Papyrus seemed to have just as much passion for cooking as Jaala, and she finally had someone to talk to about it. Sans had doused the entire thing in loads of ketchup and seemed to love it, while Jaala gagged at her beautiful dish being ruined. It reminded you of the dinner yesterday.

The four of you chatted over the food, it was quite relaxing. As you predicted, there were many questions thrown your way. Half of them personal, half of them grilling, all of them embarrassing. But it was nice all the same. It was quiet, peaceful. The sun shining on the table, the comfort food smell wafting through the air, and three of your closest friends so far all eating with you. Nothing could ruin this moment. Absolutely nothing.

When it was time for all of you to head home and Jaala to head to work, she said goodbye to you at the elevator. “Alright, Sweet Pea, you be okay out there. With all these bullshit attacks going, I’d hate to see you get caught up in all of it.” She turned to Papyrus and Sans. “And I’m counting on the both of you to keep an _eyesocket_ out for her. You two look like good, dependable people who can be good to _________, so i trust you to be there while I’m not.”

Papyrus stood straighter and saluted. “YES, MA’AM! I PROMISE TO BE A GOOD FRIEND TO THE HUMAN PROTECT HER!” Jaala nodded approvingly.

Sans finger gunned her. “you got it, pal.”

“Jaaaaalaaaaaa, you’re embarrassing meeeeeeeee…,” you moaned. The fashionista shrugged at you.

“I just hate worrying about you, dude. Especially when you’re out there all on your own, no one but me to depend on,” she confessed. “But now you have other people, and that makes me feel better. Just promise you won’t throw yourself into danger, okay?”

“Okay, MOM.” At that, Jaala grabbed you by the neck and noogied you. This was so much like old times. Jaala had always been this way, even as teens. You’d always thought she’d make a great mother, but when she made it clear that a kid would only get in the way of her life, you understood, but your heart broke a little. You knew she was just looking out for you as a friend, and that she was keeping you close as your mother couldn’t, but you also sensed she acted this way because she never would be able to towards the appropriate subject. You were an outlet of sorts, but you didn’t resist. In fact, you felt comfortable with her mother-like caring. It felt good to know that someone out there was really looking out for you.

You stepped into the elevator with Sans and Papyrus, waving to Jaala all the way until the doors closed. You heard a soft “heh” from Sans.

“she kinda reminded me undyne, don’t you think, pap?”

“NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT, YES I DID NOTICE THAT THIS HUMAN DOES BEAR SIMILARITIES TO UNDYNE! QUITE PERCEPTIVE, BROTHER!”

You guessed you could see it, both were pretty intense and strong. But you didn’t know Undyne as well as these two, so you didn’t have the best perspective to judge from.

The elevator dinged, signaling that you’d reached the bottom. The three of you stepped out and exited the building. You had all decided to walk back in the beautiful weather, something so rare in November. You walked and chatted, enjoying everything. Then the moment was lost.

“__________? Is that you?”

You were frozen to the spot. That voice. That soul-grating, mind-numbing, utterly irritating voice. You knew it all too well.

Someone approached from behind with a sickening smile. “Woah, it’s been way too long! How have you been?”

Panic overtook your body, gripping Sans arm like it was a lifeline.

You had to be having a jumpscare after a wonderful dream, that had to be it. This couldn’t be happening.

Sans noticed your reaction but turned to look with Papyrus. They didn’t know him, but you did. You thought he was out of your life for good, and yet here he stood, with no care in the world. You opened your mouth, unable to form sentences, but finally something escaped your lips.

“Caleb.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had such an urge to title this "Breakfast at Jaala's" (if you can't tell, it's a Breakfast at Tiffany's reference) but i wanted to keep with the music theme. I'm trying my best to make this story unique, because I know a ton of other fanfic writers have done the "you and sans are neighbors!?" trope before, and better than mine, for sure. But as you've read, there's more drama to come, and I hope you're enjoying what I've got so far.


	8. A Sour Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new player enters the arena, and we get some new insight into your background.

The person standing in front of you looked exactly the same as you remembered him. His idiotic looking hair, short in the back but the bangs cut like a bowl cut, what he called a “fade”. His hipster glasses and abundant acne. You hated even looking at him. It was like a horrific flashback to memories you had deliberately chosen to forget.

He kept speaking like nothing was wrong. “Oh man, I just can’t believe it’s you. How long’s it been, since high school?”

You swallowed hard and nodded. Composure was something you knew you needed, but what you couldn’t achieve. “Y-yeah.”

“DO YOU KNOW THIS HUMAN, __________?” That was the first time Papyrus had called you by name, and you would’ve acknowledged it if you weren’t putting all your mental energy into staying calm.

He answered before you’d even opened your mouth. “Of course she does, we used to go to the same high school!”

“OH, WOWIE! EVEN MORE FRIENDS TO MEET!” Poor Papyrus, poor naive and ignorant Papyrus. This world would truly eat him alive.

“I was just about to head over to Starbucks, I’ll treat you to some coffee!” He stared straight at you as if he was asking only you. Papyrus’ eyes seemed to sparkle at the invitation, and Sans just stared forward.

So you were being basically dragged to the Starbucks that just so happened to be just around the corner from where you’d been. The four of you sat in the back of the cafe, and you noticed people were definitely giving the group mixed looks: anger, fear, confusion. This piled onto your anxiety, making you extremely nervous and fidgety. And through all of this, Sans had been entirely silent. He hadn’t said a word since you’d met _him_ on the street.

“By the way, my name is Caleb. Caleb Cook.” He sat down with the coffee he had taken the liberty of ordering for everyone, not even asking for preferences. You took your drink, some fancy drink that likely had more than two words in its name. Sans and Papyrus got two plain opaque cups.

“WHAT STRANGE SERVING WARE! AND THE BEVERAGE INSIDE IS EXTREMELY HOT!,” Papyrus marveled.

“Haha, yeah, I decided to get you guys plain coffee. Hope you don’t mind.”

“nah, buddy. it’s fine.” The sound coming from Sans finally startled you back to consciousness. You looked over at him, and he once again looked relaxed. But something felt….off. You couldn’t quite place it, but something wasn’t right with him.

“So are you guys her friends? Or maybe a boyfriend…?” Caleb looked between the three of you inquisitively.

“NO, NOTHING LIKE THAT! THOUGH I AM A BOY AND THIS HUMAN’S FRIEND, WE AREN’T IN ANY RELATIONSHIP LIKE THAT!”

“i’d say we are pretty good pals.”

“Well, that’s good to hear!” Sans gave Caleb a strange look, hints of suspicion hidden in his eye sockets. Caleb waved his hands frantically. “I’m just worried about my old friend, I know she always struggled with friends!”

You dug your fingernails into your arms. You really needed a break today, and now you were more stressed than ever. How ironic.

“so what was your relationship with her?”

“I’d say we were pretty close. We always hung out and joked around. Like best friends, maybe even more than that!”

You couldn’t take it anymore. You stood up and ran to the bathroom, locking yourself in a stall. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. You pulled out your phone and dialed with lightning-fast fingers.

“Hello, this is Jaala Decker speaking.”

“Jaala, I can’t—it’s too much—”

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down, Sweet Pea. Now tell me what’s going on.”

" _He's_ back.”

Silence. “I’m sorry, sweetie, you’re gonna need to be more specific.”

You sighed. The dramatic tension is gone. “Caleb. He’s back, and acting like nothing is wrong.”

She gasped the littlest bit. “Oh wow. What a horrible coincidence to see him here, especially since we moved to the city together to get away from small-town folk like him,” she voiced to herself.

“He trapped us in Starbucks, I don’t know how to get us out.”

Jaala hummed for a moment. “Just act natural, don’t let him know he bothers you. Just pretend it’s high school again.”

“I can’t do this. Not again,” you croaked. “I barely got through it the first time, and that was because we had the opportunity to get away.”

“You’ll get through this, I’m here for you. For now, just focus on getting home safe,” she encouraged. You nodded your head without thinking about it. “I have to get back to work, but I’ll call you as soon as I’m able to, okay?”

“Okay, J. Thank you.”

“Bye, Sweet Pea!” Then the dial tone rang in your ear.

You focused on slowing your breathing, calming yourself down. You could do this, you could handle this. ‘I’m grown up now, I can do whatever the hell I want and he can’t tell me otherwise,’ you told yourself.

Walking back out of that bathroom, you immediately felt a pair of eyes on you, so you turned to meet them next to you. Sans’ concern and worry hadn’t ceased today, and you mentally scolded yourself for that. You planned to pay him back for the trouble.

“I’m sorry for running like that, my anxiety got the better of me.”

“it’s no big deal. just wanted to make sure you were alright, _________.”

You smiled at him. This skeleton just couldn’t stop being so nice, could he? “Well I’m alright now, thank you for waiting. But right now all I want is to get out of here. Help a hobo out?”

He immediately understood your reference to the promise and nodded. You both walked back to the booth, where Papyrus happily chatted and Caleb was listening intently, his chin resting on his hands. They both looked over at you, both looking happy, but in subtly different ways.

“hey, bro, we need to get going. didn’t you say you had a cooking lesson with undyne you were looking forward to?”

“WHY, YES! YES I DO! IT’S UNUSUAL FOR YOU TO REMEMBER THINGS SO WELL, BROTHER!” Papyrus stood up and made his way over to the both of you.

Caleb made a pout that made him look like a child. “Well, that’s a shame that you have to go.” Caleb’s gaze made its way to you. “But you’ll be staying, won’t you, ___________?”

Sans had his hand on your back in support. You appreciated the gesture. “N-no, I’m sorry. I have to be heading back, too.”

“Aw, well that’s too bad,” he said glumly. He stood up and outstretched his arms. “Do I at least get a hug? For an old friend?”

This bullshit. Why did he have to do this? Sans tried pulling you back, but he knew he couldn’t stop this trap Caleb had set. People were beginning to stare, and making a scene would make a mess that’s too much trouble for anyone to deal with. You both knew that this effortless trap was one of genius make-up.

You hesitantly stepped toward him, and without warning he grabbed you pulled you in tight. This was passing all of your boundaries, and…..did he just sniff your hair? Oh my god, he did.

You put your hands between you and pushed away. He feigned sadness, but the look in his eyes deceived him. He was extremely satisfied, and it disgusted you. You wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, but instead, you smiled sweetly.

“See you around, Caleb.” The three of you walked back out of the cafe, and the minute you were out, you were able to breathe fresh air. It was like there had been a tight corset around you and it had finally been loosened.

“so who was that guy?”

Explaining that would require a lot of dug up memories, and someone else. “I promise I’ll tell you guys, but right now I just wanna get home.”

Sans peered up at you. He shrugged and looked back ahead. “alright then.”

And with that, you all walked home.

 

“The moment I got off of work I ran straight here! Are you okay? Did he pull anything on you?” Jaala fawned over you, checking your body for anything like you were a little girl who just fell of the swing set. You had just been minding your business in your apartment when she barged in, scaring the crap out of you.

“He did do that shitty thing where he trapped me into giving him an incredibly uncomfortable hug, but nothing else happened, so I’m okay.”

“Ooo, I hate when they do that.”

“Yeah, and he _sniffed my hair_ ,” you cringed. Jaala shared the same feeling with a facial expression of disgust. “It’s done, it’s over, I’ll likely never have to set eyes on him again.”

“You got it, girl, that’s the spirit!,” Jaala said as she combed her fingers through your hair. “But it is strange that he’s in the city. I mean, it might only be a coincidence that he met you on the street, but we specifically moved here to get out of both of our situations for better opportunities….”

You did start to wonder what he was doing here. As far as you knew, he had no business being in the city, and his family was well off, so he had no need for money. Was he sightseeing? Was he here to see monsters? You wouldn’t be surprised; Caleb was a disgustingly offensive mongrel so he would come to the city just to gawk at monsters. You plopped into your recliner, thinking this over.

Just then, you got a knock on your door. Jaala got up and opened it, and by the funny smile on her face, it was the skeleton shorty she loved so much. He waddled in and waved at you. Papyrus was not far behind. It was like these two were inseparable, it was so strange.

“HELLO, __________! HELLO, JAALA!,” Papyrus greeted. “WE JUST WANTED TO COME BY TO MAKE SURE __________ WAS OKAY, AS SANS TOLD ME SHE WASN’T FEELING TOO WELL AND THAT’S WHY SHE WOULDN’T WANT TO ACCOMPANY ME TO UNDYNE’S COOKING LESSON.”

Aw, Papyrus had wanted you to go with him to Undyne’s cooking lesson? Your heart melted at Papyrus’ sweetness. You did feel bad to disappoint him.

Sans scooted over to stand next to you. “yeah, what was up at that cafe? you never explained what was going on.” He tried to look calm, but you could tell he was being serious. He had this intense look in his eyes like he was ready to throw hands at any time. Yeah, like him and his small ass could beat up a large human…...person.

“Well, I guess I do owe you an explanation,” you started. You got up and went to grab some seats for everyone. You found two small beanbags in the closet, and you dragged out a chair from your room for Jaala. Everyone sat down in their seats, with both brothers looking like they were children ready for a story from the librarian.

“So Caleb did, in fact, go to my high school. We actually used to be friends, as weird as he was, so he wasn’t lying about that. But he left out a LOT of the real story,” you explained.  You looked to Jaala, and she nodded. You were gonna need her so you could explain it correctly.

“Caleb had always been this oddball outcast kid, so he fit right in with our friend group.  _________ and Caleb were friends for a little bit, but I still topped everyone else, of course, “ Jaala humble bragged. “Never really liked him myself, but everyone else seemed to like him and his antics, so I didn’t say anything.”

“I was only really friends with Caleb because he helped me with my homework and didn’t think I was weird, even though he would constantly play himself up to be responsible and that I was dumb and naive for needing help,” you added on, getting sentimental toward the end. Sans’ hands clenched around the waist of his jacket.

Jaala threw her hands in the air at hearing this detail. “This is why I never liked him, he was constantly playing this role of this helpless lonely depressed kid with mental issues, but he thought he was better than everyone else. In no world does it make sense to one minute think you’re the shit, then another think you ain’t shit.”

Papyrus cringed at Jaala’s words, and Sans nudged him in concern. Jaala didn’t understand at first, then you could see the realization spread across her perfect features. “Oh, are you uncomfortable with cursing, Papyrus? I’m sorry, I’m so used to swearing, I didn’t think about it.”

You had fully expected Jaala to make some comment about being an adult and handling those words, but you were glad she didn’t for Papyrus’ sake. He’s too sweet and innocent to hold to the corrupt ways of average people. Papyrus seemed to agree, as he smiled at Jaala for her apology.

“ALL IS FORGIVEN, HUMAN. I UNDERSTAND THAT HUMANS SPEAK MUCH DIFFERENTLY THAN MONSTERS, THOUGH I NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE PURPOSE OF WORDS LIKE THAT. I DIDN’T FULLY KNOW WHAT THEY MEANT UNTIL SANS EXPLAINED THEY ARE NAUGHTY WORDS!”

Oh my god, “naughty words”.  You had to hold back snorting and being utterly rude to everyone else. That was actually the funniest the way you’d ever heard someone describe swear words.

Jaala brought the focus back to the story. “Anyways, the kid never bothered me, so it wasn’t a problem for me, but he hung around __________ a lot. And never even in a friendly way, like off to the side or from a distance, almost in a creepy way.”

“I had always thought he was just shy like he didn’t like talking to big groups of people or something, but he’d always seemed fine around other groups of people. None of it really made sense until recently…,” you explained further.

“Oh, and then the BIGGEST shock came when—” Jaala paused for dramatic effect, which had full effect on both brothers, who were hanging on the edge of their seats. Or, bags. “—Caleb and __________ started going out.”

It was apparent that the brothers were in shock but in different ways. Papyrus was more of a basic surprised, like when someone gets you with a surprise party. But Sans was really into the story, paying full and unwavering attention to you and Jaala.

You scratched your arm nervously. “Yep, I really didn’t have good taste or any self-respect back then. He just one day texts me and asks, ‘Hey, wanna grab some KFC, just me and you?’ It really wasn’t a good time for anyone.”

“This boy wasn’t romantic AT ALL, either,” Jaala chimed in. Papyrus looked aghast at this fact. “He was constantly around her but didn’t pay her the love she deserved. He just used her for the label it gave him and for…..” Jaala looked at you in pity and sorrow. You looked down at your lap, so you were unable to see Sans completely seize up. “To sum it up, you could smell the toxicity rolling off of their relationship. He leached off of her weak will, and she leached off of his ‘affection’. As much as I hate to say it, the girl never did get enough love, so it landed her in a tough spot at that time.”

“THAT IS UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE! ANY PERSON KNOWS THAT WHEN YOU DATE SOMEONE, YOU SHOULD MAKE THEM FEEL LOVED AND APPRECIATED LIKE GIVING THEM COMPLIMENTS AND DRESSING NICE FOR THEM ON DATES! AND YOU CERTAINLY DON’T USE YOUR PARTNER FOR PERSONAL GAIN!,” Papyrus boomed, but he still somehow sounded happy when he was slightly angry.

Jaala declared, “You sure know more about dating and decency than most human men, Papyrus.” This made his cheekbones tint red, his own blush being a bit more normal than Sans’.

“so then what happened?” You looked over at Sans. “what happened that made things change?”

Jaala sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I obviously had to make the girl see that he was bad news, and so I convinced her to break up with him. But that did not stop him, _oh no_ ,” Jaala told with such ferocity and storytelling wonder. “The boy had been going on and on about how she should break up with him, his whole self-hatred shtick, but when she actually followed through, he acted like it was entirely her fault and that he played no part. I don’t wanna go into full detail, but let’s just say that he started showing the bumbling, desperate idiot he actually was. It almost seemed like things were going to get dangerous for ___________, I got a little scared.”

“And that was right around graduation, so the moment me and Jaala got our diplomas, I blocked every contact I ever had with him and we made plans to move to the city. We had planned on getting away together anyways, but it just happened to work out for the best. It’s been a little over four years, and I haven’t had to think about him ever since. Until now, anyway.” This was the first time having told the story to anyone, so it left a strange taste in your mouth. You hadn’t even told your parents. But you could feel your shoulders relaxing, so you had felt at least a little relief in telling someone.

“THAT IS TRULY DISAPPOINTING! HE HAD BEEN SO NICE IN THE CAFE, I ALMOST CAN’T BELIEVE HE HAD BEEN SO MEAN TO MY FRIEND IN THE PAST,” Papyrus confessed. “ALMOST. I TAKE YOUR WORDS TO HEART, SO I DO BELIEVE YOU, ________.”

You appreciated Papyrus so much. He truly was a diamond in the rough.

“so if this guy really was such a wad, why did he act so unfazed? you figure he would be angry or somethin',” Sans puzzled, back hunched and elbows rested on his knees with his fingers interlocked.

“I really don’t know. We have no idea why he’s here and why he’s being so…..strange,” you replied. You actually had no idea what this was gonna mean for you. You perked up a little. “But maybe he’s changed, maybe he isn’t the way he used to be. Everyone changes over such a long time period, so maybe he’s…..”

You could feel the future bruises forming on your arms when Jaala hopped out of her chair and grabbed both your shoulders. “I’ve said this once, I’ll say it again: people like him don’t deserve the time of day, no matter if he’s changed or not. He can repent when he apologizes for his actions and truly wants to be better than he was, but otherwise, he doesn’t deserve your forgiveness.”

“But Jaala-”

“No buts! This boy did damage that can’t be undone, and I will never forgive him for that, and you certainly shouldn’t, either. Not until he gets on his knees and begs.” She glared you in the eyes until you relented and nodded.

Jaala nodded, satisfied, and stood back up. “Well, I really should be going. TJ is probably worried about me, bless his soul,” Jaala said dramatically, hand over her heart and everything. She gave you a hug and, bag and coat in hand, left the apartment.

“WE SHOULD PROBABLY BE GOING ON OUR WAY AS WELL. METTATON’S NEW SPECIAL WILL BE ON IN A LITTLE BIT!” Papyrus stood up swiftly, and you could see he left a boney impression on the beanbag. He dashed out of the apartment, not bothering to check if his brother was following behind him.

Indeed, Sans had stayed behind. The shorter skeleton stood up and slowly stepped in front of you. When he looked you in the eyes, you could see how unnerved he was in his prickless eyes, even if the empty black pits didn’t have much to look for.

“did he hurt you?” You didn’t understand the question fully.

“No, he never really hit me or anything, he’s just scared me is all.”

“ **did he hurt you.** ” This time he said it as more of a demand to know than a question. You understood what he was asking now.

“.....It never went that far. I may have been too weak to say no, but I wouldn’t let him do that to me. The things he did do left their own mark, though.” Reminiscing on your mistakes made you feel worse about it all, but you did it anyways. You hugged yourself, trying to find what little comfort you could.

“if he ever tries to hurt you, let me know.” You looked at him in surprise. “i don’t want to see one of my friends getting hurt like that.” You could’ve sworn you heard him mutter “never again”, but you weren’t sure.

“Thank you, Sans. It means a lot that you care.”

“‘s no problem. just lookin’ out for a friend.”

You nodded and smiled. He really was a better friend than you deserved.

He made his way out the door, and even though it was only approaching noon, you were already good to go for a nap. But you figured you needed to be productive, so you checked to see if you had possibly missed any calls from the places you’d applied to. To your dismay, nothing had been left.

You scrolled through job listings on your hand-me-down laptop, and something caught your eye. A cute little bookstore had recently opened up and needed fresh employees. You happily applied online, loving the convenience of not having to walk all the way to the place to drop off the paperwork.

Snuggling into your comfy quilt on your bed, you looked back on the events of the day so far. Even though you’d met the last person you’d ever wanted to see again, you had a wonderful breakfast with your awesome neighbors, who were both so friendly and cool, and amazing bestie, who was supportive and there for you all the way. Plus, you’d found a promising job opportunity you wouldn’t mind accepting. You didn’t think there was anything that could ruin this.

But, oh, were you in for a treat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took so long, been overwhelmed. sure hope you guys will like the direction I'm taking this in.


	9. Taking Things a Bit More Andante

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Running and interviews. Everyones ideal day. Hopefully this one works out well for you!

A few days passed uneventfully, and even though nothing actually happened to cause alarm since that day, that period just put a weird sense of uncertainty in your heart. You couldn’t explain it, you just felt that boulder in your stomach that you get when you know something’s up. You were more anxious than usual, and you became more irritated at the littlest things. At one point, you snapped at one of your other neighbors when they bumped into you. You apologized immediately, but you still felt bad. They didn’t do anything, they didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of your own issues.

Jaala had also taken to checking up on you to make sure you were okay. She would text you on her breaks, and when she got off work, she’d call to talk about whatever happened in the day. She tried to cover it up that it was regular friendly talking, but you knew she was more worried than usual. Both of you knew you were prone to emotional outbursts, and with The Unnamed One in the city, you were extremely on edge.

You would think about how ridiculous you were being. He hadn’t even attacked you in the past. It was just his presence that upset you. Just being around him made you a fidgety wreck. But you knew there were people out there who had been in worse situations who were braver than you. It made you feel pathetic, that you were being so dramatic over one person who hadn’t even done so much damage.

No progress had been made with the job hunt thus far. None of the places you’d applied to had called back. You were starting to lose hope, and the fact that none of the other tenants had called about odd jobs lately was adding to it. You had even posted fresh posters in Doug’s office and in the lobby. ‘This is all such bull,’ you thought to yourself.

You were just lounging on the recliner, watching some reruns of Golden Girls, when your phone suddenly rang. Your hand absentmindedly reached for it and picked it up, thinking it was Jaala. But it was a different voice on the other end than your motherly friend.

“Hello, is ____________ there?”

You sat up in your chair. “Yeah, this is she.”

“Okay, great. We got your application.”

Had you applied anywhere recently? You couldn’t even remember what you’d eaten for breakfast. Or if you’d even eaten. But this was a callback about something, so you were happy anyways. “Could I ask what application this is?”

The person was silent for a moment, then you heard a gasp of realization. “Oh-OH, I’m so sorry! You’re application to Humphry’s Book Emporium and Cafe!”

Oh, the cute little bookstore! You were glad they had called back, it looked like a great place to start. “Cool, so should we schedule an interview? You can probably just list a good time and I’ll be able to make it.”

“Yeah, sure. How about tomorrow at noon?”

“Okay, that sounds good for me! Is there anything else I should be aware of?”

You could hear the person humming on the other end, thinking. “Oh yeah, I should probably ask: are you allergic to dogs by any chance?”

Well, that was a strange question. Certainly not one you’d ever been asked for a job. “No, I don’t really have any allergies. Why?”

“I just wanted to make sure,” they started. “Because we actually have a dog who hangs out in the bookstore—don’t worry, he’s totally tame—and I wouldn’t want to hire you to a job that would require you putting your health at risk.”

“That’s nice of you to ask before I get hired. Will I be hearing the story about the dog when I’m hired?”

“Yes, you certainly will! It’s a good story, too,” they remarked. “I think that’s everything I needed to mention, so I’ll let you go.”

“Alright, thank you so much!”

“No, thank you! Bye!”

When you hung up, your immediate thought was how unprofessional that call was. Usually, these calls weren’t all business, but this person talked as if they were calling a friend. This person must not have been in charge for long if they hadn’t even gotten the application process or being semi-professional fully down.

Aside from that one phone call, nothing else was happening. There wasn’t anything good on TV, nothing on the news to keep up with, just a whole lot of blah. You were willing to do anything to stop being bored, so you stepped into the hallway, just making up a plan as you went along. Maybe you could go to McDonald's, or go window shopping. You had the entire city to wander at your leisure, and the chances of meeting one singular person on the street were pretty damn low.

You got to the lobby, and just as you were about to leave on your own, a hand nudges your shoulder. You turn, and it’s Undyne, with Papyrus behind her. They’re both wearing sweatbands and exercise clothing.

Undyne nudged you again with her arm in a friendly manner. “Hey, _________! How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been good. What about you, Undyne?”

Her toothy grin was still terrifying, but you’d grown used to being terrified. “It’s all good on my side, thanks for asking! I have the day off, so me and Papyrus were just about to go on a run. What about you, what are you up to today?”

You shrugged lazily. “Absolutely nothing, I was just gonna wander around and hopefully find something to do.”

Undyne raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Wouldn’t figure you for the type to be bored, especially with your awesome guitar and stuff.” You could only respond with a light laugh.

Papyrus suddenly pushed Undyne to the side and faced you with the biggest smile. “YOU SHOULD ACCOMPANY US ON OUR RUN! NOTHING CURES BOREDOM AND KEEPS ANYONE IN GOOD HEALTH LIKE RUNNING!”

“Papyrus, that’s a great idea!,” Undyne exclaimed. “Come run with us, dude! I’m sure you don’t get enough exercise if any at all!”

Before you could even get in a word, they both had you by the arms like you were Dorothy skipping down the yellow brick road. They dragged you down the sidewalk and across streets until the three of you had made it to the park. There were a lot of children out playing on the playground, and there were adults sitting on benches and running. You hadn’t been to the park in ages, and you were sad you hadn’t thought of it sooner. It was so calming.

But that calmness didn’t last, as almost as soon as you’d stopped, Papyrus and Undyne had let go of your arms and were now positioned around you so you were running with them. Undyne took the lead, and Papyrus ran behind you, yelling encouraging things to keep you going. It was a really good thing you’d opted for yoga pants, a light t-shirt, and your old tennis shoes.

You couldn’t even remember the last time you’d ran. You had never enjoyed physical activity much, even though you knew you needed it. You remembered actively avoiding taking gym in high school, just so you wouldn’t have to recognize how horrible you were at sports. Not to mention your body issues; you used to hate your body in school, trying your best to stay on a diet and exercise plan your mom made. but when you’d entered college, you stopped caring. You didn’t have Jaala’s miraculous ability to lose weight so easily. The only reason she worked out so much was to get out her aggression and to stay fit. You were envious of her, you’d always wanted a naturally skinny body, but you couldn’t be bothered to worry about it. You didn’t have time to worry about your body, and you grew to accept yourself over time. How ironic, that being stressed out made you start to accept yourself the way you were.

After about ten minutes, you were gasping and wheezing, obviously really out of shape. Undyne tried to distract you with small talk. “You know, Frisk really likes you.”

“Uh-huh,” you said on auto-pilot. The sweat was starting to soak through your shirt.

“Yeah, they like everybody, but they are really close with Sans and Papyrus, so they really appreciate you being so nice.”

“Hm.” You were considering the possibility that you had asthma and your mother never told you. There’s no way a normal person should be struggling to breathe like this.

“THIS IS QUITE TRUE! IN FACT, QUEEN TORIEL HAS GROWN ANXIOUS TO MEET YOU FROM WHAT THE TINY HUMAN TELLS HER!”

These words shocked you from your daze. You stumble and trip over your feet and run straight into Undyne. Luckily, she had been paying attention, so she had caught you before you could knock her over. She grinned at you as you stood back up.

“The….the Queen of Monsters wants to meet m-me?”

Undyne howled in laughter. “Geez, you’re getting so nervous. Yeah, she’s a bit more intimidating than King Asgore, but first and foremost, she’s Frisk’s mom. She wants to meet the person that’s making her kid and their friends so happy.”

You couldn’t comprehend this. By simply being a nice person you had attracted the attention of royalty? This was a lot to take in.

“COME ON! LET’S KEEP GOING BEFORE THERE’S TOO MANY PEOPLE CLOGGING UP THE PATHS!” Papyrus started shoving both of you with surprising strength, forcing you to continue running. You ran until you eventually collapsed onto a bench, unable to breathe anymore. Which was another ten minutes. Papyrus and Undyne had to escort you home, where you chugged two glasses of water and had a wonderful nap.

  
  


The next day was hectic. You had gotten up at a decent time, but it had taken you so long to find a nice outfit that would make a good impression that you had to rush around to get out of the house on time.

The internet you were mooching off your neighbor for was acting up, so you had to print directions from Doug’s office. He had decided black and white would be more helpful than color, so you had to spend another five minutes marking the directions in red marker. With that all taken care of, you were finally ready to sprint your way to the bookstore within six and a half minutes.

It was a good thing the streets weren’t super crowded because you needed every second to make it. The outside of the place looked cute, the glass door having the name of the shop printed onto it in swirly cursive, and a closed sign hanging over it. You whipped open the glass door to the quaint shop open and silently thanked Papyrus and Undyne for dragging you with them on a run because you wouldn’t have made it otherwise. Once you gained your composure, you were able to look around. It really was a cute little place, bookshelves of different styles and sizes lining the walls. Wherever there wasn’t a shelf blocking the wall, there was art either hung or painted straight onto the wall. You could see that in the back corner was a coffee bar with pastry displays and cute little tables surrounding it. But even with the decor, the place was still eerie because of the lack of people inside.

“Hello? Is anyone there? I’m here for the interview.” Your voice echoed off the walls, and there was no answer. At least, not immediately. You could hear distant clattering, then tapping on wood, getting closer to you by the second. Then you could see the source as you saw what looked like a large Bernese mountain dog barrelling toward you at full speed. You didn’t stand a chance as it jumped up and knocked you straight onto the floor. It sniffed your face happily, and you tried shoving the dog off, but he was just too heavy. You could feel the slobber staining your clothes.

“Humphry! That is not how we treat guests!” You weren’t able to look up to see your savior, you could just feel the pressure of the dog’s weight being lifted from your chest. When you sat back up, you saw it was a girl a few years older than you, and she was coaxing the dog with a stuffed bee. She threw the bee to the back, and the dog bounded after it. The girl turned back to look at you with a smile. “Sorry about that, he’s not usually so….eager to greet guests.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting it, I love dogs.”

“Oh, that’s great!” she said with an elated expression on her face. “I know it’s unusual to account for a dog in applications and stuff, it’s just as weird for me, but Humphry’s an important part of the shop so I couldn’t bear to leave him out.”

You nodded in understanding. A dog would normally have to be kept out of stores because of allergies and people with other issues, but you could get that this dog must play a significant part in the bookstore. You remembered reading somewhere that dogs in local shops used to be common. You thought it was okay for dogs to be in public places, as long as they were trained. Plus, dogs are great.

She offered you a hand, pulling you back up. You could now see her fully. She had golden skin, dark hair twisted into a loose braid with colorful strings weaved in on her shoulder, and striking eyes, one being blue, and the other green. ‘She must have heterochromia, or just gets contact lenses for the aesthetic,’ you thought.

Almost as if she was reading your mind, she said, “And yes, I do in fact have heterochromia. Gawk all you want, I don’t mind.”

“How much have people bothered you about it for you to mention it right away?”

“Oh, you have no friggin’ idea. Everyone is so FASCINATED by something so simple as two different colored eyes.”

“People are kinda dumb,” you remarked. “I’ve just kinda learned to tune out their comments. ‘Oh, you wear that?’ ‘That’s an interesting choice of hair color.’ ‘So you don’t plan on getting married soon?’ It’s all just babble to me.”

“That is something we can agree on.” She lead you toward the back of the store. You could see the place was packed full of so many more books than you thought. “So, considering you’ve already earned Humphry’s favor and I’m starting to like you too, you won’t have to do much to ace this interview. I’m just going to have to ask a few standard questions, and you should be good to go.”

“Geez, I wasn’t expecting to get the job so easily. Every experience I’ve had has been so uptight and stressful.”

She turned back to you. “We aren’t like that. And I’m too lazy to be professional.” You laughed at that. You were definitely gonna like her.

You could see Humphry still playing with the toy bee. He was laying in a cute dog house in the corner, and there were vintage style signs hung up that said: “Meet Humphry the Dog!”. It was adorable, and you were sure if they charged to see him, they’d make double whatever they already made.

You started to reminisce on the dogs that used to hang out in your neighborhood. The neighborhood was close-knit and most of the dogs your neighbors owned were trained so they could wander and nobody complained. One dog, in particular, a St. Bernard, was like your best friend when you were little before you’d met Jaala. You’d tried to ride him like a horse, and it sort of worked, but he never ran around. All he ever did was lay in the sun and take naps. But you loved him anyways. Now that you thought about it, you related to that dog more as an adult than you ever did as a kid.

Suddenly you were in a separate room and you hadn’t noticed you were sitting until you came back to reality. It looked like it was an office, but it was messy and disorganized. The girl sat across from you, sat back with her arms crossed over her chest. “Impress me,” she commanded.

“What?”

“You heard me.” She leaned forward, eyes squinting a little. “Impress me.”

You weren’t entirely sure what she meant, so you just grabbed a pen from the mug sitting on the desk. You bent your head back so you were staring at the ceiling then set the pen on your nose lengthwise. You balanced it perfectly, but anyone with half a mind could do it. Despite this, it seemed to amuse the girl, because she let out a loud cackle.

“That was possibly the most random thing you could’ve done. I’m impressed, but not by your nose-pen-balancing skills.” She pulled out a file from a pile on the far side of the desk. She sifted through the contents. “My husband worked as a manager at a small company outside the city, and when he asked the same question to applicants, they would list off all these meaningless accomplishments, like all the clubs they were in college, or that they were valedictorian. When you’re applying for a bigger position, that stuff can get you brownie points, but most of these places look for something different, like charisma. Those answers are safe, but your answer was so unintentionally brave.”

You stared at her in utter disbelief. “I was just confused, I didn’t know it was a trick question. But I guess I’m a secret genius.”

The girl laughed again. “Then there’s that, too.” She stood up and outstretched her hand. “I’m Annika.”

“And I’m __________, but you already knew that.” You stood up and clasped your hand in hers. Her handshake was a little more on the weak side, but you could feel the warmth in it.

Annika skirted her way around the desk. “That should conclude any interviewing I needed to do. This job doesn’t require any special skills, so don’t worry about that.” She grabbed a purple apron off a hook on the wall. “There’s no uniform, just wear this apron for work. I will train you to shelf books and how to work the register.”

“Thank you so much, you have no idea how great this is for me.”

She patted you on the shoulder and lead you back toward the front entrance. “It’s really no problem, we needed new employees anyways.”

You were about to step out, but you turned back. “Are there gonna be other employees, or is it just me and you?”

Annika thought for a moment. “I do need at least two employees, one for the shop and one working the coffee bar. I haven’t had many promising applicants for the barista position, but I’ll call if we do get any.”

“Oh, well thank you! I’d appreciate knowing ahead of time, just so I know what’s happening. Is there other paperwork I should fill out, like a schedule or a release form…?”

“No, all of that will be handled on official opening day, since we are only open online right now. And it’s easier when everyone turns in everything at the same time. Just be here this Monday at 6 AM,” she explained. Humphry trotted up and sat next to her with a goofy dog-smile.

“Alright then, I’ll be on my way.” You opened the door and walked out the door. “I expect the dog story later, though!” you called back as the door was closing. Annika did a thumbs up back.

For the first time in a long time, you felt stable. Control was never something on your list of priorities, but apparently, it was a satisfying thing to have. It was like when you play a video game and you had all the best gear and potions to fight the final boss. Like a game of Risk where you’ve perfectly planned out your actions for your little kingdom.

  


It was a couple of hours later and you were relaxing at home, flipping through a magazine on the kitchen counter with a glass of water, when your phone rang. You looked and saw it was the newly labeled number that belonged to Annika. You picked it up.

“What’s the haps, my dude?”

“What?”

“Nevermind, don’t pay attention to me. What’s going on?”

“You won’t believe what happened.” She paused for suspense. “Right after you left, someone applied! And they have the skills to run the coffee bar!”

“Dude, that’s amazing!” You weren’t going to be alone, that’s already a plus. But one factor still remained. “Were they cool?”

“Yeah, he was. He was funny and charming, and he was pretty cute, too. Humphry didn’t seem to like him, though, he stayed in his corner the entire time.” You could hear things being clattered around on the other end. “But the most important thing is that he knew how to make coffee.”

“Well, that’s good. Hope I’ll get along with him.”

“Yeah, me too. But I’m sure you will, he seems like a cool guy.”

“So what’s the guy’s name?”

“That’s another interesting thing, his name was so alliterative. Look at me, listing everything cool about him. Almost like a high school crush.”

“Don’t leave a girl hanging!”

“Right, sorry. His name was Caleb Cook, I think.”

Your heart dropped, a thump coming from your stomach. And your phone with it, right into your water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I am on a roll with writing up drama, aren't I? New chapters should be up.....at some point. Hey, what can ya do?


	10. Play a Simple Melody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a freak-out, some explanation for some questions you have.

This absolutely, positively, for the love of everything good and just, without a doubt couldn’t be happening.

You were pacing in your living room, trying to work this all out. Caleb had gotten a job at the same place at you so you could assume he was living here, because who would get a job in a city they were only visiting? You were going to have to see him all the time. And what if it wasn’t a coincidence that he applied there? What if he was on some kind of trip to humiliate you and make you feel bad for dumping him? You choked at the thought. What the fuck what the fuck what tHE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK-

A soft rap at the door scared you out of your head. You whipped it open and Sans stood there with a face like Jaala had just called and told him you died.

“is everything okay? i suddenly got worried,” he quavered.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, everything’s fine on my end. Why do you ask?”

He startled waddling backward. “sorry, it’s nothing, i must be paranoid.”

You approached him and you could hear him muttering “sorry” and other things under his breath. “Sans, what’s going on?”

“no, it’s fine, just go back to whatever you were doing.”

“Sans, please tell me.”

He looked up at you with sincerity in his eyeholes. He seemed to consider before he finally answered. “your soul was crying.”

You stared at him, then finally huffed. “What?”

“here, i think i should explain.” He pulled you into his apartment. Papyrus was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was still hanging out with Undyne. He had you sit on the couch next to him.

“So what the hell do you mean by ‘my soul was crying’?”

Sans took a deep breath, which you were still unsure how any of that worked. “so this kind of thing’s pretty complicated to explain, so i’m gonna need you to hang in there, okay?”

This was starting to sound pretty sketch. “Okay….?”

“Basically, people have these things called souls—”

“We humans are well aware of the concept of souls.” Sans’ browbones flattened. “Sorry. Continue.”

“as i was saying, all people—humans and monsters alike—have souls. they are our lifeforce, the culmination of our being. human souls are more powerful, and they come in many different types, while monster souls are not quite so great.”

“What do you mean by powerful?”

He started to use his hands to gesture. “human souls can last after death, a lot like the human corpse, while both the monster soul and body turns to dust when they die. boss monsters have powerful enough souls to last, but there’s only two known left to exist, and it’s the king and queen. humans used to use this power, they used to possess magic like us. but i guess ever since we were locked away, you guys forgot how to use it. or something happened so you couldn’t anymore.”

This was so fascinating. Humans used to be able to do magic like monsters can? Why couldn’t they do magic anymore? All of this was lost to history, you guessed. “So then what does that have to do with my soul and how you said it was ‘crying’?”

“i’m getting there,” Sans assured. “one thing all souls have in common is how they resonate. They get this sort of…..aura around them when we feel things inside. we can pull our souls out to engage in battle when we feel threatened, but it can also be an act of trust towards someone you know and love. the soul’s expression is a bit more genuine than the person’s expression so it can be considered intimate, but it can be between friends, family, anyone you care about.”

“Oh, wow. That’s….so weird. So if humans have these souls and all this you’re saying….why didn’t we know about it?”

“your guess is as good as mine, i wasn’t around when we still lived up top.”

You could barely wrap your head around it. So right now there was such a powerful thing inside you…...that was definitely a lot. A lot of questions were swirling in your head, but you knew Sans couldn’t answer all of them.

“So wait. How could you see my soul if i didn’t pull it out and let you see it?”

Sans scratched the back of his skull, a sweat drop appearing on his forehead. “some monsters can see the aura regardless of if the soul is inside or outside the body. it’s a more rare ability. i am one of the monsters that can do it.”

“You can see a person’s soul, even inside their body?”

“yeah, pretty much.”

“What does mine look like?”

Blue rushed across Sans face, much deeper than it normally is. He glanced between your chest and your face. It was making your cheeks tinge to a blush, too. Finally, he looked you straight in the eyes. “it’s beautiful.”

Now it was your turn for your cheeks to flush deeply. “Th...that’s not what I meant, Sans.”

“Oh, um, sorry,” he apologized. “it’s deep blue, which is the soul type that values morals and honesty. it’s a little beat up and dark, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. some of the best souls are dinged up a bit. and as they say, the darker the space, the brighter the light shines through.”

“Wow,” is all you managed to say. You grazed your chest with your fingertips, amazed that such a thing sat inside you at that moment. And every single person had one. This was precisely why you didn’t understand why people couldn’t get along; they were all made up of the same stuff, just in unique ways. 

You then started to think about how far the differences between monsters and humans went. Were they just a different species, or was it a different genus, or family, or order, or all the way back to the domain? Research proves that humans are a split off of apes millions of years ago, so are monsters a more complicated split off? You were digging up your knowledge from freshman biology just to think too hard about a race of people, and it was hurting your brain.

“like i said, it’s a harder topic to discuss. but it’s an essential thing in every person’s life.”

You smiled at him. “Thank you for talking to me about it. Though, now I’m nervous. You can look into my soul like a peeping tom,” you said, dramatically throwing your hands over your chest. He reacted accordingly by throwing his hands up to grip his skull, his face somehow contorting to exaggerated fear.

“oh no! i’ve been found out! the feds are coming to get me!” He collapsed against the arm of the couch.

You laughed out loud, wiping a tear from your cheek. “How do you even know what the feds are already?”

“oh, trust me, every monster knows who the feds are.” He had a happy smile on his face, but darkness lurked behind his dot pupils that told you they truly had experienced something. And you wouldn’t be surprised, someone had to have alerted the government, and they would have been on top of them. It was frustrating to think about, but really, what else could humans do? They couldn’t have known what was happening, and the entire ordeal must’ve been terrifying for both sides. But that didn’t excuse the terrible treatment the monsters have gotten since.

You decided to change the subject. “So how does magic work then? Does it come from the soul?”

Sans sat straight. He obviously liked this topic better. “magic is an expression of a person’s soul, like an extension of their being. whatever person you are, your magic will reflect who you are. like me and papyrus have magic that manifests as bones.” He held up his hand where a bone seemed to appear out of thin air, glowing a faint blue. As you were about to reach out to touch it, Sans whipped his hand back, making it disappear. “that’s not the best idea. even just grazing a magic piece makes you lose a few health points.”

“Health points? Is that another magic thing?”

“kind of? there’s health points, execution points, level of violence, and it’s all part of the HUD. from my research, back in the old days, everyone had a HUD, regardless if they used magic or not, but frisk looks to be the only human who can use theirs now. but i have a hypothesis that humans nowadays just can’t summon them anymore, like their magic, and something about going underground helped frisk use theirs.”

“Us humans really are in the dark, aren’t we?” God, that stuff sounded kind of scary. “Execution points”? “Level of Violence”? Those were some gory titles. But something was clicking with them… “Are those things your guys’ versions of EXP and LV?”

Sans’ eyebrows shot up in surprise. “wow, you caught on quick. what do you mean ‘versions’, though?”

“Well, in video games up top, we have HP, EXP, and LV, but they don’t stand for the same things, aside from health points. EXP stands for experience points, and LV stands for Level.”

You had expected him to have an interesting reaction, make a joke about life being a video game, but instead, he grimaced. “you humans have morbid interpretations of something so personal.”

“What do you mean?”

“if the soul is the center of a person, then the HUD is the monitor of the soul, showing its condition and how tainted it is. EXP is something you gain when you kill people, and to call it gaining experience…” He clenched his hands in his lap, obviously wanting to say something, but holding back. “at the very least, it’s taking the subject extremely lightly.”

You stared at him as he seemed to stew in his thoughts. You were seeing his perspective, it really was messed up to think about it, but you’d grown up with video games and their meanings for it all. You gently sat your hand on his shoulder in sympathy.

“We couldn’t have possibly known that the acronyms stood for anything else. Hell, we thought we invented it all. And there are many different interpretations for the health system.” He looked up at you, letting you know he wasn’t feeling comforted. You held your hand up for him to wait. “But you are right, it is a little messed up. We do take killing very lightly. We pay no mind to all the violence in media, but as soon as it’s in front of us, we freeze up and panic. It’s just life, and how cruel it can really be.”

“so you guys make excuses to avoid how bad you really are?” You looked at Sans in real concern, and his sockets were empty. You must’ve accidentally struck a nerve. You knew you should stay quiet, but you were a little frustrated, too.

“Most of us do. We make excuses for why we are lazy, why we are weak, why we are mean to others. We tell one group they shouldn’t need representation, tell another their issues don’t exist. Everyone has their own perspective, but mine is that we should all own up to what we do.”

Sans seemed to relax as you finished. “thank god we got stuck with you as our neighbor, eh?”

You smiled. “Sure.”

 

A couple more questions and a lengthy discussion later, you finally decided to head back to your apartment. Papyrus had dropped in just as you were leaving, and gave you a bone-crushing hug for who knows what. Sans joined on the two-step journey.

“so what made you so upset anyway?” Sans suddenly asked.

“Hm?”

“when i knocked on your door, it was because i sensed your soul was in a lot of pain.”

You had completely forgotten about that. Funny, Sans had enough effect on you to make you forget something so big.

“I got a job at a bookstore.”

“oh, cool. but why is this bad?”

“It’s bad because of who I’ll be working with.”

Sans scratched his skull in confusion, then slowly lowered it to his side as his casual smile bent into a quivering line. “don’t tell me…?”

“Caleb and I will be coworkers now.”

Sans grabbed you by the wrist with surprising strength. “quit the job.”

“What?”

“i’ve seen what effect he has on your soul, and being around him so much is not healthy for it.”

You ripped your hand away. “I can’t afford to give up this job just to avoid him.” You could feel his hurt gaze on you as you stepped inside your apartment. “Besides, maybe he really has changed.”

Sans stood in silence, not a word leaving his mouth. You turned away. “I have to go put my phone in a bag of rice. See ya.” You closed the door, and after a minute you heard him shuffle away.

You slid your back against the door. Everything was a mess, and there was nothing you could do about it.

 

Sans stood there, facing the door as if expecting for it to open again. But it didn’t. He turned around and dragged his feet along the carpet of the hallway. You had ranted about humans making excuses, but you were making excuses yourself. Excuses to keep yourself tied to the person who obviously hurt yourself so much.

He swore he would never let his friends get hurt since the barrier dropped, and that went for you, too. He wasn’t about to let you be hurt by some two-faced asshole. You were just a human, but to him, you were the best kind of human. You weren’t perfect, hadn’t done anything special like Frisk, but you had been so much better than every other human he’d met. And yet you’d suffered so much at the hands of your own kind, and one you had thought cared about you of all things.

You certainly had weird taste in friends. Your best friend was certainly an oddball, though Sans personally liked her. Jaala was a successful, well off woman, but she loved puns and cooking her own meals, and she was best friends with you, a poor college graduate. She was like a mother bird who was teaching you how to fly, forcefully shoving you out of the nest. And then you had been friends with Caleb, who obviously had a lot going on just on his own.

After meeting this guy, who he could sense was putting up a pretty complex and almost convincing facade, he already didn’t like him much. But when you and Jaala told him what he’d done in the past, he wanted so desperately to teleport straight to his house and give him some judgment of his own. He had hurt you in a way that wouldn’t heal like a wound would; he’d scarred you to a point that you had become absolutely terrified of him, but somehow you were still attached to him. You were such a critical spitfire, but somehow your skepticism stopped at him, and he didn’t understand it at all.

This was your soul at work: wanting to believe the best in people, even they’d done you wrong. Your soul was designed to be morally upright, and it was certainly a wonderful trait to have in your soul, but it also got you into sticky situations where you’re sympathizing with people who obviously don’t need it, or deserve it.

He started to think about his own actions. He was getting so riled up, and he hadn’t gotten so uppity about anything for a long time. He knew he was probably acting like a crazy person, getting all protective, but he couldn’t help it. Something in him just wanted to see you happy, with nothing to worry about. He tried to think of why he was acting up suddenly. Maybe seeing people like you being used and abused made him mad. Or maybe seeing people like _Caleb_ do disgustingly vile things to others without consequences reminded him of another time….

He also couldn’t understand what was going on with him whenever he was around you. Whenever he was around you, he felt just a little calmer, and when he would peek into your soul and see that it was just a bit brighter, he felt brighter, too. He couldn’t understand why he was so affected by you. When he analyzed it from afar, he could easily make it out to the feeling of getting a new friend. He decided that’s what he’d go with, but he knew in the back of his mind that it was different. He just couldn’t place his finger on it.

He decided his time would be better spent lazing on the couch than pondering on these things he didn’t fully get, so he sat back and flicked on the TV to one of Mettaton’s shows.

 

A figure stood outside the apartment building, shrouded in the darkness of the night. They pulled out a phone from the pocket of their hoodie. Flashes of light came as they snapped photos of the windows seeing into the second apartment on the fourth floor. The figure smiled as they dialed a number into the round buttons appearing on the screen. The phone rang for a moment, then it picked up and someone was heard on the other end.

“What is your progress?” the voice said in a serious tone.

“I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, you guys have been very vague.”

“We have told you, you’ll know you’ll have found the treasure when you have found it.”

“Now it’s a treasure? I thought I was looking for a person.”

“Enough silly chit chat! Have you any leads?”

The figure sighed in exasperation. “No, it’s been a bust.”

“So why have you called? What have you been doing this entire time?”

The figure looked back up at the apartment, ideas formulating in their head. “I’ve been taking care of some business.”

“Leave your personal issues out of the mission. This mission, if completed discretely and correctly, will turn the tides of this silent war.”

“You keep talking about this ‘holy mission’, what the heck is up with it?”

“You, a simple peon, wouldn’t understand. There is much more at stake than you could possibly comprehend, so I suggest you stop asking the questions and find the answers we seek!”

“Geez, fine. I was just asking.”

There was chatter on the other end, then a heavy sigh. “I have matters to attend to. Get results, give me an update within the next week.” The line cut off before the figure could respond.

“Thanks so much for appreciating the hard work I’m putting in, your thanks are welcome while I’m doing all your dirty work!” the figure mocked to himself. They looked back up at the apartments, and they could feel their arousal rising up every second, but they shut it down. Now wasn’t the time to strike. They smiled to themselves.

There would certainly be a better time to make a move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my upload schedule is virtually non-existent at this point, but im trying anyways. how valiant of me. anyways, hope you enjoy!


	11. A Fanfare for Fools

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day on the job, so much anxiety pent up inside! The first step into adulthood isn't at all what you expected.

As much as you wanted to avoid it, your first day of work came. You had to go in early to get trained and get your bearings before the store was swarmed with customers. The sun was barely up, only peeking out of the horizon by an inch. It was certainly gonna take getting used to, getting up before 11 AM, but you were willing to do it if you were going to be able to put better food on the table. You weren’t all that excited about Caleb being there, but you were being too harsh on him. It’d been so long since you’d seen each other, maybe he’d seen the error of his ways. You had to give him the benefit of the doubt before you labeled him as still being guilty.

You seriously had to go clothes shopping once you got your first paycheck because you only had baggy sweaters, t-shirts, and lazy clothes. And the very few presentable pieces of clothing you had were all waiting to be washed. You rustled around in your dresser, and you found an old t-shirt with a small logo for a company you didn’t know. ‘Must’ve gotten this as promo somewhere, cus I would never buy something like this,’ you thought to yourself.

What went through your head is that with the apron over it, it’d look like you were wearing a plain black shirt, and that’d be something closer to nice. You found some skinny jeans and threw them all on. The t-shirt was a little small on you, clinging to your chest a bit more than would be within your taste, but nobody would care. You’d be wearing something that’d be covering your entire torso, so you’d survive. Tucking the shirt into your jeans (for a more professional look) and slipping on a pair of white vans, you were ready to go.

You didn’t have much lunch to pack, so you figured you’d go without a meal for the day and make up for it later. Humans don’t need food THAT much, right? You ignored the grumbling of your stomach as you gathered up your things and left home base.

The walk was peaceful, but the inside of your mind wasn’t. You were anxious about having a job for the first time in years, and how you’d be working with…….Thinking about this was only making you more nervous.

Your first job had been at a theme park near your childhood house at the ripe age of 14. They hired kids your age at minimum wage and the bus passed by it, and that was all your parents needed to basically force you to apply. It was significantly better than working at a fast food place or a grocery store, but it still wasn’t very fun. But this job was seasonal, and you had to get a job later on that went year round, so that’s when you started working at the local Meijer. This job had been a little worse than the theme park, but not as bad as you’d imagined. That job lasted until graduation, with your seasonal job on top of it during the summer. Then you dropped both when you moved to the city. It certainly was a different time back then.

Before you knew it, you were at the shop. You stopped outside the door, giving yourself a small pep talk and trying to calm yourself a tad bit, then stepped inside to an unknown future.

“Hey, __________! You came right on time!” Annika strolled towards you, looking excited as ever. You could imagine she was ecstatic to finally open up shop. It must’ve been a lot of work to keep track of an online shop AND setting up the physical one. You also started to wonder why there was an online store before a physical one. How does that work exactly?

“Well, I do kinda want this job, so I have to be responsible,” you replied. Annika smiled at you and waved for you to follow her.

“This job is gonna be fairly easy, though some aspects are challenging. If anything, the barista has more of a challenge!” You grimaced a small bit. She may not have said his name, but you knew who she was referring to. But you needed to stop with the theatrics. He was a human being who makes mistakes, and holding a grudge for so long is not healthy for anyone.

A question should take your mind off of internal arguments. “So what system do you shelve books with?”

Annika turned around to look at you, surprised. “I use a combination of alphabetical and genre. It’s kind of like the Dewey Decimal System, but I put my own spin on it. Why?”

“I thought that I might be, like, shelving books and stuff.”

“Oh, no!” She raised up her hands and shook them at you. “You will be mainly working the register and unpacking new and donated books in the back, I will take care of shelving them. Not to undermine you, but I need to wait until you have more experience until I trust you with shelving the books, so you don’t shelve them wrong.”

You nodded. “I get it, totally understandable.”

Annika perked up. “I should probably teach you how the register works, especially since it sticks sometimes!”

The next twenty minutes was Annika teaching you how to do your job. The register was the easiest part because apparently you were being tasked with keeping an eye on Humphry as well(Annika says he has a habit of playing too roughly). She also let you know that you had no obligation to dress nicely, that sweaters and jeans were fine, as long as they looked presentable. You were very thankful to her for that.

Suddenly, as she was showing you what to do if the cash drawer sticks, the front door burst open and there was the subject of your troubles, a smile plastered on his face and dressed in a grease-stained high school band shirt and obviously-too-tight-fitting jeans.

“Where are the lockers? I brought a lunch and some stuff.”

Annika huffed as she stepped away from you to face him. “Caleb, I would’ve appreciated it if you would’ve come a bit earlier so I could train you in a timely manner. Training you is much more difficult than training _________, and it took us almost half an hour! And the shop opens in ten minutes!”

Caleb flashed his teeth in a smile you knew too well. “Sorry, I had some trouble with lots of people on the sidewalks.”

And the process of Caleb’s specialty coercion was complete when you saw Annika’s eyes soften and she softly sighed. “It’s fine, Caleb, just try to be on time in the future.”

She led him back to the bar, and you swore you could see him sneak a look back at you. You tried to ignore it as you grabbed your apron and stuck your new name tag onto it. You could see the people already gathered outside, desiring to come inside and judge its contents. Annika came back after a short while, and both of you seemed to take a deep breath at the same time as she opened the door to let the hoard inside.

 

It was definitely the most stressed and worked you’d been in a while. Many people were interested in the bookstore with a cafe and a friendly dog to pet. Granted, dogs were definitely a crowd pleaser, and Humphry was the cutest and most huggable dog in the world. Thankfully, you got a handle on the cash register pretty well, but keeping an eye on Humphry was harder. He hadn’t really jumped anyone as he’d done to you, but he wandered so much, you could never find him. When you did, you were alerted by a little kid squealing cus the dog licked their face or something.

Despite the place making it open that they were accepting of monsters, not many had shown up. You saw one bird monster who skimmed the place in an almost judgemental way, and then a slime monster jiggled inside, then went right back out. You were wondering if they were intimidated by the number of humans, or maybe there just wasn’t many monsters around today.

You barely ever passed by Caleb, so that was at least something. Your stomach was begging you to stop by and sneak a scone, but you told yourself no. You would have to talk to him, and you weren’t quite ready to be friendly yet, though you felt bad. You also didn’t want to chance getting fired for stealing or something.

A wonderful smell wafted through the air, something sweet like pie and a flowery aroma mixed in, and you abandoned unboxing some books to follow it. It was possibly the most heavenly smelling thing your nose had ever had the pleasure of sniffing. Finding the source was a bit like a puzzle, weaving through the bookshelves to find wherever it was coming from. Just when you thought you might be approaching, you felt someone grab your wrist. You turned around, and instantly smiled when you saw it was Frisk.

“Hey, bud! Nice to see you here!” You held out a hand for a high five, and they very passionately slapped it with their own, and the sting you felt afterward assured you it was a great high five. “You here to pick up books, or just checkin’ it out?”

They held up a book they had clutched in their other hand for you to see. It was “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, and an older copy at that. You were impressed, most kids their age were reading stuff like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. You figured he must be at a higher reading level. They tried to sign, and even though you didn’t quite understand, you could tell that doing it with only one hand wasn’t getting the message across anyways.

You looked around. “So who are you with? I sure hope you didn’t skip school to come here.”

“Oh, technically they didn't skip school and aren’t alone, but thank you for the concern.”

You turned around to the source of the voice, and standing there was by far the biggest monster you’d seen yet. She was only a little taller than Papyrus, but she wasn’t skinny like he was(which, Papyrus obviously had to be). But even with this size, she was actually quite inviting. It definitely helped that she was basically a giant fuzzy goat, but she also gave off the aura of a mother, like a fragrance. She even dressed the part, with a plainer purple dress and little glasses set on her snout. You looked to Frisk, who was smiling at her, and then back at her. It was then that it registered in your mind: this was Frisk’s mother. This was the Queen of Monsters.

You clenched your teeth and tried your best not to freak out. “Okay, __________, you are in the presence of actual royalty, and she has been wanting to meet you. Don’t panic and make a bad impression,” you thought to yourself. Your mind immediately went to the first time you met Sans, and you cringed to yourself. You’d never make that mistake again.

The goat monster cocked her head to the side. “Are you alright, miss?”

You snapped to your senses with a jolt. “Oh, I’m perfectly fine, thanks!” You folded your hands, fidgeting slightly. Frisk skipped to show the Queen their book, and she smiled at them. Then they pointed back at you and signed a little. An elated look came upon the Queen’s face as she looked back up at you.

“So you’re the young lady _________ I’ve heard so much about!” She pulled you in for a warm, yet tight hug. “I have been so anxious to meet you, my dear, you have done so much for my child and our loved ones.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty, but I was just being a good neighbor and friend,” you sputtered with what little breath you had left. Thankfully, she pulled away before you were suffocated completely.

“There’s no need for formalities with me, I’m just an old lady. Oh! This reminds me!” She cleared her throat. “Knock knock.”

“Um...who’s there?”

“Old lady.”

“Old lady who…?”

“I didn’t know you could yodel!” She burst into roaring laughter, and you just groaned. At least her jokes weren’t as bad as someone else’s….

She wiped a tear from her eye. “I’d completely forgotten my manners, I hadn’t even properly introduced myself. My name is Toriel.” She held out her large hand, and you awkwardly took it.

“My name is _________, but you already knew that. It’s nice to meet you.” The two of you shook hands, Toriel smiling and you congratulating yourself or not being a spaz. Then Frisk tugged on their mother’s dress. Toriel released your hand and turned to her kid.

“Alright, my child, I get the message.” She turned back to you. “I have to be going now, Frisk needs to get back to their lessons, but hopefully I will see you in the future. “

The two of them walked off, and you waved at them until they finally left, where the kid did give you a final wave at the door. You let yourself relax once you saw them pass the window out front. “Holy crud, I just met the Queen of Monsters,” you thought to yourself.

Toriel ended up being so much warmer than you had thought she’d be. The image in your head had been an authoritarian with an intimidating aura, but she almost felt like an immediate mom to anyone who needed her. You didn’t know much about the leaders of the monsters, as journalists have either refused to write about any of the monsters in any positive light or haven’t been able to get in close without scrutiny. The only thing people had to go off of concerning the royals was what they saw on TV, which wasn’t always unbiased. In fact, the Queen almost never showed up on TV. All everyone really knew about her was that she was a silent aid to the King, who was much more out there about his position. You weren’t sure if this was the Queen’s choice to be out of the spotlight or a result of a possible preference of the King. You preferred to think the former; Toriel seemed to not be enthusiastic on her title, and the King looked kind when you saw him on TV.

People had started to stare at your dawdling, so you went back to unboxing books. Luckily, there wasn’t much left to take care of, so you were free to go back up front. You saw Annika ringing someone up on the cash register, engaging in some small talk with them. You were jealous of people like her who could talk to people without anxiety.

When she was done, she turned back to you. “Ah, ___________, good timing. I have a call to make real quick, take over for me?”

You nodded, and she quickly dashed back to her office. You started ringing up the next person in line, but then you felt a presence next to you. You didn’t even have to look to know who it was.

Caleb leaned against the counter as he said: “It’s a real coincidence that we both got jobs at the same place, ain’t it?”

You laughed nervously. “Yeah, I guess it is. Now if you’ll excuse me…” You turned back to the line of customers to handle your job, while Caleb continued standing there like he didn’t have one.

“So how’s life been treating ya? You still going to school?”

“It’s been fine, and no, I graduated a few months ago. Not to be rude, but shouldn’t you be, I don’t know—” You shot him daggers from a side glance. “—doing your job?”

Caleb waved his hand. “I’m taking a quick break, thought I’d talk to my old pal.”

“Wha—Your break isn’t until after mine, and that isn’t for another hour!”

“Ah, there’s no harm in taking a breather every now and again. Besides, the cafe is totally a ghost town since it’s after lunch time.”

You stared at him in disbelief. The customer in front of you gave a cough to get your attention, so you turned back to get the customers out the door. And even when you weren’t paying him any mind, he still stuck next to you like a needy toddler.

As if your prayers were answered, Annika swung around the corner. “Thanks, ______, I’ve got it taken care—” She paused to notice the slacker standing behind you. “Caleb, why aren’t you at your station?”

On queue, Caleb smiled like a child about to show puppy eyes to get out of a punishment. “Things got intense back there, and it was completely empty, so I wanted to talk to _______ for a bit.” He grabbed you from behind in what would’ve been a friendly hug. “We were childhood friends, and I haven’t seen her in years, so I wanted to catch up.”

Annika gasped. “________, you didn’t tell me you knew Caleb from your childhood!”

This situation was getting way out of your control. “Yeah, we lost touch after high school. But I’m sure that Caleb should be at least practicing all the brews, right?”

Your boss looked back at Caleb, trying to remain the authority figure and not a gossipy friend. “Caleb, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t leave your station without warning, but I suppose if there aren’t any customers there at the moment, it isn’t the biggest offense.”

Your jaw dropped at this blasphemy. “Shouldn’t he not be getting off so easy if he’s doing this on his first day? At least a slap on the wrist?”

Annika looked back at you in a mix of confusion and shock. “Geez, _______, it’s almost as if you want me to punish Caleb. Relax, this isn’t some corporate desk job.”

Caleb chimed in: “Maybe you’re the one who needs a break!”

You wiggled yourself away from the prolonged and uncomfortable hug and straightened up. “No, I’m fine! I’m just so used to formality, what with working more prim and proper jobs back in high school…”

Your boss gave you one more second of analysis. “Alright, just try not to get so hung up on stuff. After all, I’m the boss, so I’ll handle the dishing out of punishments.”

The blush on your face was very likely the deepest shade possible. You nodded and stepped aside for her to get back to the cash register. As you were waddling to the back, you got a tap on the shoulder. You turned your head to look at the tapper from the corner of your eye.

“Don’t be so tense, loosen up!” Caleb pointed his index fingers to the corners of his wide smile. “And you should smile more often! Pretty girls should smile, it makes them ten times prettier.”

You held back every urge to explode at him for the infamous statement that almost every woman hates. Instead, you stretched the corners of your mouth to your ears in an obviously sarcastic smile and said all to cheerily: “Will do!”

Caleb laughed. “Glad to see you taking my advice!” Then he walked off, and you gladly wiped the smile off your face, and you desperately wanted to do the same to him after that debacle.

 

When you got home, you didn’t even bother changing. You plopped onto your bed as soon as you entered your home. But not even five minutes later, there came a ding from the kitchen. You padded toward the sound and saw it was your phone. ‘Looks like it’s working again,’ you thought.

You took the phone out of the bag and did a check, No scratches, nothing glitching, everything was working just fine. You checked and saw the ding was a text.

 

Annoying Neighbor: so how was your first day of work?

 

You typed out a response on impulse.

 

Me: Horrific. The only good thing about it was seeing Frisk and meeting their mom.

 

You waited patiently for a response, but you guessed Sans was one of those people who didn’t wait around for replies and texted back immediately. Finally, he texted.

 

Annoying Neighbor: that’s cool. tori had some good things to say about you.

Annoying Neighbor: did anyone bother you today?

 

You knew exactly who he was talking about.

 

Me: A little bit, but I can handle it. I may personally dislike him, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be civil.

 

The response this time was almost instantaneous.

 

Annoying Neighbor: you’ve got a heart of gold, and the soul of a saint. hope i won’t have to deck someone for bothering you.

 

You frowned slightly. You punched the keys a little harder this time.

 

Me: I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself, even if it’s hard.

 

It took a second, but he responded.

 

Annoying Neighbor: i sure hope you’re right, i don’t like seeing you sad.

You thought for a moment. Then you swiped your fingers across your screen.

 

Me: I’m gonna hit the sack, super tired. Goodnight, Sans

 

Annoying Neighbor: night.

 

You sat your phone on your nightstand to charge and laid on your back. You put your palms to your face. You were definitely going to have to have a serious chat with Sans later on about this protector trope he had going on, you were not liking the direction it was going. But you were sure that was just his way of caring about you and your safety, especially after all he’d been through.

The pillow felt like a cloud as you happily slipped into a dream-filled sleep. But little did you notice the flashes outside your window on the fire escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I've been in a real funk. I got really into reading this book (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, highly recommend, though warning for sexual content and sexual abuse), then I got really depressed for a bit, it was a whole ordeal. But I finally forced myself to finish the chapter! I've finally run out of buffer chapters, so now I'm going to write chapters from scratch for every update. We will see how the update schedule goes, though I'll try to keep it reasonable.


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